Applied Materials Company Profile (NASDAQ:AMAT)

Applied Materials trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol "AMAT."

Applied Materials declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, June 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 24th will be paid a dividend of $0.10 per share on Thursday, September 14th. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 22nd. View Applied Materials' Dividend History.

Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May, 18th. The company reported $0.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.76 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $3.55 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.54 billion. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 38.28% and a net margin of 20.41%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 44.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.34 earnings per share. View Applied Materials' Earnings History.

Applied Materials is scheduled to release their next quarterly earnings announcement on Thursday, August, 17th 2017. View Earnings Estimates for Applied Materials.

Applied Materials updated its third quarter earnings guidance on Thursday, May, 18th. The company provided EPS guidance of $0.79-0.87 for the period, compared to the Thomson Reuters consensus earnings per share estimate of $0.69. The company issued revenue guidance of $3.60-3.75 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $3.43 billion.

21 analysts have issued 1 year price targets for Applied Materials' stock. Their predictions range from $31.00 to $65.00. On average, they expect Applied Materials' stock price to reach $46.58 in the next twelve months. View Analyst Ratings for Applied Materials.

Here are some recent quotes from research analysts about Applied Materials stock:

• 1. UBS AG analysts commented, "China Semicon had 900+ booths this year; will be the key region for semicap. We attended China Semicon this week in Shanghai and remain comfortable with our 2018 China capex estimates of $9.8B (up 80% yoy). Our most positive meeting was with Huali, an indigenous foundry. Huali reported its fab 2 started construction recently and will spend $5.9B for 40k wpm of capacity. Its fab 2 is targeting the 28nm/14nm technology nodes. We believe Huali could order equipment in 2H17 with additional upside if it chooses to build a 3rd fab in 2018. We also met with GigaDevice but are less certain on its ability to move into DRAM and NAND. The company is building a new fab, Hefei Changxin, but we are not sure if it has the technology.Still have technology questions about XMC's NAND fab and Jinhua's DRAM fab We visited XMC's booth and confirmed it has a 5K wpm R&D line at its existing fab in Wuhan (China fab tracker). Our checks found XMC is planning to start a small scale 3D-NAND production by year end. XMC said its semicap purchases will be dependent on how large the scale is (we estimate a 30k wpm pilot line). XMC also reported its 32L NAND was validated by electrical test but we are not sure if this product will be profitable and it may need to develop 48L later on. At the show we did not find Jinhua, which has proposed building a DRAM fab in China. Our conversations at the show suggest Jinhua is targeting fab completion by 2H17 with production in 2H18, though most of the R&D work is being done in one of UMC's Taiwan fabs.Applied had an upbeat tone at its technical presentation at China Semicon. Applied's focused on customer migration from 2D to 3D-NAND; highlighted its new tools including Precision CVD, Sym3 Etch, Selectra Etch. We believe Applied can benefit from higher capex by indigenous China fabs going forward. One area that we will keep monitoring is competition from local China semicaps who are trying to sell more to local fabs. However, our checks at the show found local Chinese semicap companies have mostly sold small amounts of equipment to local China fabs (see page 3).Valuation: Buy rated with a 12-month price target of $44 Our PT is based on applying a 15x P/E to our FY18 EPS of $2.93. Our target multiple is at the high end of its historical range of 10-18x but in line with its peer group with share gains in semicap and display possibly driving more expansion opportunities." (3/20/2017)
• 2. According to Zacks Investment Research, "Applied Materials is one of the world’s largest suppliers of fabrication equipment to semiconductor, LCD and solar PV cell manufacturers. The company's first quarter fiscal 2017 results beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate on earnings and revenues. Over the last one year, the stock has outperformed the Zacks characterized Semi-Equipment Wafer Fab industry. Applied Materials is in a great position to grow sustainably and profitably based on its strong pipeline of enabling technologies, supported by expanding opportunities on the semiconductor, service and display fronts. Nevertheless, high fixed cost structure and customer concentration remain concerns." (2/17/2017)
• 3. Instinet analysts commented, "AMAT reported in-line but solid F1Q and guided F2Q well above, driven by strength in Display (+122% y/y) and SSG (+51% y/y). As such, we are raising our target price from $34 to $40, based on 13.5x our CY18E EPS. F1Q results in line. F2Q guidance strong. WFE outlook positive. Upside to FY19 target model." (2/17/2017)
• 4. Needham & Company LLC analysts commented, "The very strong F1Q17 (Jan) bookings and F2Q17 (Apr) guidance that is likely above buy-side expectations should silence any critics on AMAT's ability to continue to deliver profitable growth. Certainly, investors will likely continue to fear a softer CY2H17 especially with the exceptional near-term performance, but management sounded confident that its FY2H17 will at least grow YoY, supported by more back-end loaded Display revenue, broadening of foundry/logic demand, as well as AMAT's own share gains and solid product momentum. We continue to believe AMAT's strategy of targeting differentiated products around industry inflections will drive multiple years of profitable growth ahead, supporting a higher stock price." (2/16/2017)
• 5. Stifel Nicolaus analysts commented, "We maintain our view that Applied is the best-positioned name over the next several years with sustainable growth and one where we expect the company to outperform its peers during this time. We also believe the company is tracking ahead of its target model (for 2019) set at its Analyst Day last September. We are raising our target price to $42, which reflects the same 15x multiple on our long-term target model EPS of $2.80, including options." (2/13/2017)

Applied Materials saw a drop in short interest during the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 13,219,715 shares, a drop of 7.6% from the May 31st total of 14,300,066 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 11,175,359 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.2 days. Currently, 1.2% of the company's stock are sold short.

Some companies that are related to Applied Materials include NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA), NTT DOCOMO (DCM), Softbank Corp. (SFTBY), QUALCOMM Incorporated (QCOM), Adobe Systems Incorporated (ADBE), PayPal Holdings (PYPL), Baidu (BIDU), ASML Holding N.V. (ASML), Salesforce.com (CRM), America Movil, S.A.B. de C.V. (AMX), T-Mobile US (TMUS), Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation (CTSH), NetEase (NTES), NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NXPI), Vmware (VMW), Canon (CAJ), Nokia Corporation (NOK) and China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd (CHU).

Applied Materials' management team includes the folowing people:

• Thomas J. Iannotti, Independent Chairman of the Board
• Gary E. Dickerson, President, Chief Executive Officer, Director
• Robert J. Halliday, Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President
• Omkaram Nalamasu, Senior Vice President, Chief Technology Officer
• Thomas F. Larkins, Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary
• Ali Salehpour, Senior Vice President, General Manager - Applied Global Services and Growth Markets
• Ginetto Addiego, Senior Vice President, Engineering, Operations and Quality
• Charles Read, Chief Accounting Officer, Corporate Vice President, Corporate Controller
• Judy Bruner, Independent Director
• Xun Chen, Independent Director

Applied Materials' stock is owned by many different of retail and institutional investors. Top institutional investors include Bank of Montreal Can (0.76%), Swedbank (0.30%), Chevy Chase Trust Holdings Inc. (0.11%), National Pension Service (0.09%), Sit Investment Associates Inc. (0.08%) and Factory Mutual Insurance Co. (0.08%). Company insiders that own Applied Materials stock include Ali Salehpour, Dennis D Powell, Gary E Dickerson, Omkaram Nalamasu, Randhir Thakur, Stephen R Forrest, Susan M James, Thomas F Larkins and Thomas J Iannotti. View Institutional Ownership Trends for Applied Materials.

Applied Materials' stock was sold by a variety of institutional investors in the last quarter, including Bank of Montreal Can, Sit Investment Associates Inc., First Quadrant L P CA, Factory Mutual Insurance Co., Capital Management Corp VA, DnB Asset Management AS, Osborn Williams & Donohoe LLC and Kempner Capital Management Inc.. Company insiders that have sold Applied Materials stock in the last year include Dennis D Powell, Gary E Dickerson, Omkaram Nalamasu, Stephen R Forrest and Thomas F Larkins. View Insider Buying and Selling for Applied Materials.

Applied Materials' stock was bought by a variety of institutional investors in the last quarter, including Swedbank, Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V., Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund, National Pension Service, Bedrijfstakpensioenfonds Voor DE Media PNO, Aperio Group LLC, Legacy Private Trust Co. and James Investment Research Inc.. View Insider Buying and Selling for Applied Materials.

Shares of Applied Materials can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages include Vanguard Brokerage Services, TD Ameritrade, E*TRADE, Scottrade, Fidelity and Charles Schwab.

One share of Applied Materials stock can currently be purchased for approximately $47.25.