MJP Associates Inc. ADV Invests $578,000 in Applied Materials, Inc. $AMAT

MJP Associates Inc. ADV purchased a new stake in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 2,824 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $578,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in Applied Materials during the 2nd quarter worth $1,604,002,000. Sanders Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Materials during the 2nd quarter worth $1,409,320,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its position in shares of Applied Materials by 72.5% in the second quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 13,564,120 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $2,483,183,000 after purchasing an additional 5,700,349 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Applied Materials by 1,704.0% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,439,598 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $499,483,000 after purchasing an additional 2,304,369 shares during the period. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Applied Materials by 417.3% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,732,015 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $317,053,000 after purchasing an additional 1,397,217 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Key Applied Materials News

Here are the key news stories impacting Applied Materials this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 / fiscal Q1 results beat expectations and management gave aggressive forward guidance (CEO projected ~20% calendar‑year revenue growth and raised Q2 outlook), which sparked the rally. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Several firms bumped up price targets and ratings after the results — notable raises reported (Needham and others), backing upside to current consensus and supporting further upside momentum. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts are increasingly framing AMAT as a primary beneficiary of the AI-driven “Giga‑cycle”; TD Cowen and other shops have raised targets (e.g., Cowen to ~$450), reinforcing buy‑side conviction. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Broader industry coverage highlights AMAT’s leadership among equipment suppliers in the current multi‑year chip investment wave — a positive thematic tailwind but already largely priced into many forecasts. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Management scheduled investor conference appearances/fireside chats — useful for additional color on demand and margin trajectory but not an immediate catalyst on its own. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Published short‑interest reports show anomalous “0 shares / NaN” figures for mid‑February — appears to be a data error and does not indicate a meaningful short squeeze. Investors should rely on standard data sources for positioning metrics. (data entries)

Applied Materials Price Performance

Applied Materials stock opened at $359.13 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $298.78 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $239.54. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 12 month low of $123.74 and a 12 month high of $376.32. The company has a market capitalization of $285.05 billion, a PE ratio of 36.76, a P/E/G ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.70. The company has a current ratio of 2.71, a quick ratio of 1.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.21 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $7.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.88 billion. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 37.52% and a net margin of 27.78%.The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.38 earnings per share. Applied Materials has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 2.440-2.840 EPS. Analysts expect that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 9.38 EPS for the current year.

Applied Materials Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.46 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 19th. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 18.83%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AMAT has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $380.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price target on shares of Applied Materials in a research report on Friday. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $430.00 price objective on shares of Applied Materials in a research note on Friday. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $300.00 to $350.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. Finally, B. Riley Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $450.00 target price (up previously from $400.00) on shares of Applied Materials in a report on Friday, February 13th. Twenty-seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $363.04.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Adam Sanders sold 609 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.53, for a total value of $155,617.77. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 4,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,127,653.89. The trade was a 12.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Teri A. Little sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.24, for a total value of $952,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 84,351 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,095,782.24. The trade was a 4.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Applied Materials

Applied Materials, Inc is a U.S.-based supplier of equipment, services and software used to manufacture semiconductor chips, flat panel displays and other advanced materials. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, the company designs and sells capital equipment and related technologies that enable production of integrated circuits, display panels and materials used across the electronics supply chain.

Applied Materials’ offerings include process equipment and factory software that support critical steps in device fabrication, such as deposition, etch, implantation, inspection and metrology, as well as systems for packaging and advanced heterogeneous integration.