Versant Capital Management Inc Reduces Stock Position in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)

Versant Capital Management Inc decreased its position in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 16.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 474 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after selling 95 shares during the quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $77,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Lantz Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Materials in the second quarter worth $212,000. New York Life Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC now owns 127,251 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $30,030,000 after buying an additional 1,045 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 2.2% in the second quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 35,066 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $8,275,000 after buying an additional 748 shares during the last quarter. Candriam S.C.A. grew its holdings in Applied Materials by 8.1% during the second quarter. Candriam S.C.A. now owns 676,556 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $159,653,000 after acquiring an additional 50,571 shares during the period. Finally, Savant Capital LLC raised its position in Applied Materials by 58.0% during the second quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 26,325 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $6,212,000 after acquiring an additional 9,667 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Applied Materials Trading Up 3.8 %

Shares of AMAT opened at $170.06 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.51, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $174.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $195.40. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 12-month low of $148.05 and a 12-month high of $255.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $138.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.75, a P/E/G ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.53.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 14th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.32 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.19 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $7.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.96 billion. Applied Materials had a net margin of 26.41% and a return on equity of 39.26%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.12 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 9.48 EPS for the current year.

Applied Materials Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. Applied Materials’s payout ratio is 18.58%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on AMAT. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $270.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 15th. Susquehanna lowered their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $190.00 to $170.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 11th. StockNews.com lowered Applied Materials from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 14th. Finally, Dbs Bank downgraded Applied Materials from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $220.29.

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.