Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) Upgraded to Buy at Bank of America

Key Points

• Bank of America upgraded Applied Materials from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating with a target price of $250.00, suggesting a potential upside of 19.08% from the current stock price.
• Wells Fargo also raised its price target for the company to $250.00, indicating growing positive sentiment among analysts, although Deutsche Bank lowered its target significantly to $170.00.
• Applied Materials reported strong quarterly results with an EPS of $2.48, outperforming expectations, along with a revenue of $7.30 billion, reflecting a year-over-year growth of 7.7%.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT - Get Free Report) was upgraded by investment analysts at Bank of America from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Finviz reports. The brokerage presently has a $250.00 price objective on the manufacturing equipment provider's stock. Bank of America's target price points to a potential upside of 19.08% from the company's current price.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Applied Materials from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price target on Applied Materials from $200.00 to $170.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 15th. Rothschild & Co Redburn cut Applied Materials from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $200.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Monday, July 7th. B. Riley upped their price target on Applied Materials from $200.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Wolfe Research lowered their price target on Applied Materials from $230.00 to $200.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 15th. Eighteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $204.54.

Applied Materials Stock Down 4.7%

AMAT opened at $209.95 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.76, a current ratio of 2.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $182.60 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $171.79. Applied Materials has a 52 week low of $123.74 and a 52 week high of $226.49. The company has a market cap of $167.25 billion, a PE ratio of 25.02, a P/E/G ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 1.82.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 14th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.48 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $7.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $7.21 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.12 EPS. The firm's quarterly 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, research analysts anticipate that Applied Materials will post 9.38 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Applied Materials by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,920,984 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider's stock worth $7,125,265,000 after buying an additional 391,540 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Applied Materials by 2.0% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,026,363 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider's stock valued at $3,836,807,000 after purchasing an additional 407,282 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its position in 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 valued at $2,483,183,000 after purchasing an additional 5,700,349 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in Applied Materials by 13.7% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 8,936,363 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider's stock valued at $1,635,992,000 after purchasing an additional 1,075,525 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Applied Materials in the second quarter valued at about $1,604,002,000. Hedge funds and other 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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