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.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Bank of America dropped their price target on Applied Materials from $135.00 to $118.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, June 29th. Mizuho reduced 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 report on Friday, May 20th. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $153.00 to $132.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 20th. StockNews.com raised shares of Applied Materials from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Applied Materials from $174.00 to $158.00 in a research note on Friday, May 20th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $146.04.
Applied Materials Price Performance
Shares of NASDAQ:AMAT opened at $106.00 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $92.21 billion, a PE ratio of 14.13, a P/E/G ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a quick ratio of 1.54, a current ratio of 2.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $98.22 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $114.65. Applied Materials has a twelve month low of $82.67 and a twelve month high of $167.06.
Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT - Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 19th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $1.85 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.89 by ($0.04). Applied Materials had a return on equity of 57.17% and a net margin of 27.20%. The business had revenue of $6.25 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.35 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.63 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 11.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Applied Materials will post 7.43 EPS for the current year.
Applied Materials Announces Dividend
The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 25th will be paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 24th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.98%. Applied Materials's payout ratio is 13.87%.
Insider Activity
In related news, SVP Teri A. Little sold 15,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.30, for a total transaction of $1,294,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 93,169 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,040,484.70. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.37% of the company's stock.