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 Stock Down 1.3 %
NASDAQ:AMAT traded down $1.44 on Friday, hitting $109.62. The stock had a trading volume of 4,784,018 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,993,316. Applied Materials has a 52 week low of $82.67 and a 52 week high of $167.06. 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's fifty day moving average is $99.70 and its 200 day moving average is $116.28. The company has a market cap of $95.36 billion, a PE ratio of 14.62, a P/E/G 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 company had revenue of $6.25 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.35 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.63 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 11.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Applied Materials will post 7.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Applied Materials Announces Dividend
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 25th will be issued a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 24th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.95%. Applied Materials's dividend payout ratio is presently 13.87%.
Analyst Ratings Changes
AMAT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Craig Hallum dropped their price objective on Applied Materials from $170.00 to $145.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Applied Materials from $174.00 to $158.00 in a research report on Friday, May 20th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Applied Materials from $175.00 to $160.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 23rd. Needham & Company LLC dropped their target price on Applied Materials from $172.00 to $130.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Applied Materials from $133.00 to $115.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 25th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $146.04.
Insider Activity
In other news, SVP Teri A. Little sold 15,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 93,169 shares in the company, valued at $8,040,484.70. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.37% of the company's stock.