Applied Materials, Inc. provides manufacturing equipment, services, and software to the semiconductor, display, and related industries. It 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. This segment also offers various technologies, including epitaxy, ion implantation, oxidation/nitridation, rapid thermal processing, physical vapor deposition, chemical vapor deposition, chemical mechanical planarization, electrochemical deposition, atomic layer deposition, etching, and selective deposition and removal, as well as metrology and inspection tools. The Applied Global Services segment provides integrated solutions to optimize equipment and fab performance and productivity comprising spares, upgrades, services, remanufactured earlier generation equipment, and factory automation software for semiconductor, display, and other products. The Display and Adjacent Markets segment offers products for manufacturing liquid crystal displays; organic light-emitting diodes; and other display technologies for TVs, monitors, laptops, personal computers, electronic tablets, smart phones, and other consumer-oriented devices. The company operates in the United States, China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia, and Europe. Applied Materials, Inc. was incorporated in 1967 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.
Applied Materials Trading Up 5.4 %
AMAT Stock opened at $105.05 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $99.11 and a 200 day moving average price of $115.62. Applied Materials has a fifty-two week low of $82.67 and a fifty-two week high of $167.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a current ratio of 2.29. The firm has a market cap of $91.39 billion, a PE ratio of 14.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.51.
Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT - Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 19th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $1.85 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.89 by ($0.04). Applied Materials had a net margin of 27.20% and a return on equity of 57.17%. The business had revenue of $6.25 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $6.35 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.63 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Applied Materials will post 7.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
Applied Materials Announces Dividend
The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 25th will be paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 24th. Applied Materials's payout ratio is 13.87%.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
Several research firms have recently issued reports on AMAT. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $133.00 to $95.00 in a research report on Friday, July 15th. Craig Hallum reduced their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $170.00 to $145.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 20th. StockNews.com cut shares of Applied Materials from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 5th. Mizuho cut their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $180.00 to $160.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 20th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $135.00 to $110.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 15th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Applied Materials presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $146.04.
Insiders Place Their Bets
In other news, SVP Teri A. Little sold 15,000 shares of Applied Materials stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.30, for a total transaction of $1,294,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 93,169 shares in the company, valued at $8,040,484.70. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.