Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) Receives Average Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Brokerages

Key Points

• Applied Materials, Inc. has received a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from 31 brokerages, with one sell rating, thirteen hold ratings, and seventeen buy ratings.
• The current average 12-month price target for the stock is $193.88, reflecting analysts' updated coverage in the past year.
• Applied Materials reported a quarterly earnings beat with $2.48 EPS, exceeding estimates of $2.36, and had a revenue of $7.30 billion, up 7.7% year-over-year.

Shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT - Get Free Report) have earned a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from the thirty-one brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $193.8846.

Several research firms have recently weighed in on AMAT. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Applied Materials from $169.00 to $172.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, August 15th. Wall Street Zen cut Applied Materials from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, June 14th. Daiwa America cut Applied Materials from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 20th. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $220.00 to $205.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 15th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on Applied Materials from $160.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th.

Applied Materials Trading Down 0.1%

NASDAQ AMAT opened at $164.39 on Thursday. Applied Materials has a 12 month low of $123.74 and a 12 month high of $215.70. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $182.47 and its 200-day moving average price is $165.75. The company has a current ratio of 2.50, a quick ratio of 1.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The stock has a market cap of $130.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.59, a P/E/G ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 1.70.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 14th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.48 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.12. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 40.96% and a net margin of 23.88%.The firm had revenue of $7.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $7.21 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.12 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. Applied Materials has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 1.910-2.310 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Applied Materials will post 9.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Applied Materials Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 21st will be issued a $0.46 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. Applied Materials's payout ratio is presently 21.93%.

Insider Activity at Applied Materials

In related news, CAO Adam Sanders sold 562 shares of Applied Materials stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.60, for a total value of $100,373.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 5,300 shares of the company's stock, valued at $946,580. The trade was a 9.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.24% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Applied Materials

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Eagle Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Eagle Capital Management LLC now owns 16,004 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider's stock worth $2,603,000 after purchasing an additional 290 shares in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 28.0% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 12,674 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider's stock worth $2,061,000 after purchasing an additional 2,771 shares in the last quarter. Value Partners Investments Inc. increased its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 8.7% in the 4th quarter. Value Partners Investments Inc. now owns 9,896 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider's stock worth $1,608,000 after purchasing an additional 793 shares in the last quarter. Boothbay Fund Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 43.4% in the 4th quarter. Boothbay Fund Management LLC now owns 3,407 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider's stock worth $554,000 after purchasing an additional 1,031 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Utah Retirement Systems increased its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Utah Retirement Systems now owns 138,057 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider's stock worth $22,452,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.56% of the company's stock.

About Applied Materials

Applied Materials, Inc engages in the provision of manufacturing equipment, services, and software to the semiconductor, display, and related industries. The company operates through three segments: Semiconductor Systems, Applied Global Services, and Display and Adjacent Markets. The Semiconductor Systems segment develops, manufactures, and sells various manufacturing equipment that is used to fabricate semiconductor chips or integrated circuits.

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