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 4.6 %
AMAT traded up $4.85 during trading on Friday, reaching $110.38. The company had a trading volume of 6,644,695 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,250,993. 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 business has a 50 day simple moving average of $98.60 and a 200-day simple moving average of $115.16. The stock has a market cap of $96.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.72, a PEG ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.51. Applied Materials has a 52 week low of $82.67 and a 52 week high of $167.06.
Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT - Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 19th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $1.85 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.89 by ($0.04). Applied Materials had a net margin of 27.20% and a return on equity of 57.17%. The firm had revenue of $6.25 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $6.35 billion. The company's revenue was up 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.63 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Applied Materials will post 7.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Applied Materials Dividend Announcement
The firm also recently declared 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. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 24th. Applied Materials's dividend payout ratio is currently 13.87%.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on Applied Materials from $153.00 to $132.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 20th. StockNews.com cut Applied Materials from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on Applied Materials from $133.00 to $95.00 in a research note on Friday, July 15th. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $175.00 to $160.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 23rd. Finally, Cowen set a $160.00 price target on shares of Applied Materials in a research report on Monday, June 20th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Applied Materials has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $146.04.
Insider Activity at Applied Materials
In other Applied Materials news, SVP Teri A. Little sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.30, for a total value of $1,294,500.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 93,169 shares in the company, valued at $8,040,484.70. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.37% of the stock is owned by company insiders.