Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) Price Target Raised to $161.00


Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) had its price objective increased by Mizuho from $158.00 to $161.00 in a report issued on Friday, The Fly reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock.

AMAT has been the topic of several other reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $137.00 to $139.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research note on Monday, May 24th. Zacks Investment Research raised shares of Applied Materials from a hold rating to a buy rating and set a $144.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $146.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Friday, May 21st. Susquehanna increased their price target on Applied Materials from $155.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a positive rating in a research report on Friday, May 21st. Finally, Susquehanna Bancshares lifted their price objective on Applied Materials from $155.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a positive rating in a report on Friday, May 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. The stock currently has a consensus rating of Buy and a consensus target price of $153.59.


Get Applied Materials alerts:

Shares of AMAT stock opened at $131.49 on Friday. Applied Materials has a 12-month low of $54.15 and a 12-month high of $146.00. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $135.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 3.10 and a quick ratio of 2.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $120.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.45, a PEG ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 1.44.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 18th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $1.77 by $0.13. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 45.08% and a net margin of 22.35%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.06 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Applied Materials will post 6.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.


The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 16th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 26th will be given a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 25th. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio is 23.02%.

In related news, CEO Gary E. Dickerson sold 74,524 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.00, for a total value of $10,433,360.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Teri A. Little sold 13,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.03, for a total transaction of $1,863,405.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 288,671 shares of company stock worth $40,557,435 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.


Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AMAT. Vulcan Value Partners LLC bought a new stake in Applied Materials in the second quarter valued at approximately $437,398,000. Whale Rock Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Applied Materials in the 1st quarter valued at $403,729,000. Amundi acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Materials during the second quarter worth $401,644,000. Putnam Investments LLC raised its stake in Applied Materials by 219.1% during the first quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 4,080,100 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $545,101,000 after buying an additional 2,801,305 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC raised its stake in Applied Materials by 13.6% during the second quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,693,309 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $3,089,127,000 after buying an additional 2,593,318 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.75% of the company’s stock.


About Applied Materials

Applied Materials, Inc engages in the provision of materials engineering solutions used to produce new chip and advanced display. It operates through the following segments: Semiconductor Systems, Applied Global Services, and Display and Adjacent Markets. The Semiconductor Systems segment includes semiconductor capital equipment for deposition, etch, ion implantation, rapid thermal processing, chemical mechanical planarization, metrology and inspection, and wafer level packaging.

See Also: Stocks Increasing Dividends

The Fly logo

Analyst Recommendations for Applied Materials (NASDAQ:<b><a href=AMAT)' width='650' height='330' />

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.