Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado Sells 3,321 Shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)

Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado decreased its position in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 115,385 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after selling 3,321 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $27,230,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in AMAT. Precision Wealth Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in Applied Materials by 8.5% in the fourth quarter. Precision Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 3,097 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $502,000 after acquiring an additional 242 shares in the last quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. boosted its holdings in Applied Materials by 11.1% in the fourth quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 4,182 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $678,000 after acquiring an additional 418 shares in the last quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Applied Materials by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC now owns 1,609 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $249,000 after acquiring an additional 84 shares in the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Applied Materials by 10.6% in the fourth quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 197,905 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $32,074,000 after acquiring an additional 19,033 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quest Partners LLC purchased a new position in Applied Materials during the fourth quarter valued at $369,000. Institutional investors own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on AMAT. Dbs Bank lowered Applied Materials from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday. Barclays raised Applied Materials from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $165.00 to $225.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Applied Materials from $224.00 to $185.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price objective on Applied Materials from $260.00 to $230.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price target on Applied Materials from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $232.00.

Applied Materials Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AMAT opened at $196.71 on Friday. Applied Materials, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $129.21 and a fifty-two week high of $255.89. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $199.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $210.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 2.09 and a current ratio of 2.86. The firm has a market cap of $162.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.55.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 15th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $6.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.68 billion. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 39.99% and a net margin of 27.74%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.90 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 8.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Applied Materials Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.81%. Applied Materials’s dividend 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.