Brokerages Set Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) PT at $221.84

Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-five brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $221.84.

AMAT has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and set a $230.00 target price on shares of Applied Materials in a report on Wednesday, May 15th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on shares of Applied Materials in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $225.00 price target for the company. Barclays upgraded Applied Materials from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $165.00 to $225.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. UBS Group upped their price target on Applied Materials from $185.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $240.00 target price on shares of Applied Materials in a report on Friday, May 17th.

Insider Activity

In other Applied Materials news, Director Thomas J. Iannotti sold 9,827 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $236.65, for a total transaction of $2,325,559.55. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 49,185 shares in the company, valued at $11,639,630.25. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Applied Materials news, Director Thomas J. Iannotti sold 9,827 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $236.65, for a total value of $2,325,559.55. Following the sale, the director now owns 49,185 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,639,630.25. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Brice Hill sold 20,000 shares of Applied Materials stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $222.34, for a total value of $4,446,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 108,356 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,091,873.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 89,827 shares of company stock valued at $21,382,560 in the last three months. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Sherbrooke Park Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in Applied Materials during the 3rd quarter worth about $741,000. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 11,822.8% during the 3rd quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 19,911 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $2,757,000 after purchasing an additional 19,744 shares during the last quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 4.2% during the third quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC now owns 4,277 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $592,000 after buying an additional 173 shares in the last quarter. United Services Automobile Association raised its position in shares of Applied Materials by 12.7% in the third quarter. United Services Automobile Association now owns 23,091 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,197,000 after buying an additional 2,608 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hodges Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Applied Materials during the third quarter valued at approximately $249,000. 80.56% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Applied Materials Stock Up 0.6 %

NASDAQ AMAT opened at $237.41 on Friday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $218.22 and its 200-day simple moving average is $196.10. The company has a quick ratio of 1.97, a current ratio of 2.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The firm has a market cap of $196.57 billion, a PE ratio of 27.29, a P/E/G ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.56. Applied Materials has a 52 week low of $129.21 and a 52 week high of $249.42.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 16th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.09 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.97 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $6.65 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.54 billion. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 41.22% and a net margin of 27.57%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.00 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Applied Materials will post 8.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Applied Materials Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 22nd will be given a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 22nd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. Applied Materials’s payout ratio is currently 18.39%.

About Applied Materials

Applied Materials, Inc engages in the provision of manufacturing equipment, services, and software to the semiconductor, display, and related industries. The company 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.