Smith Thornton Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)

Smith Thornton Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor purchased 1,719 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $406,000.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in AMAT. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 75,008,622 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $15,469,028,000 after purchasing an additional 891,446 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its position in shares of Applied Materials by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,005,192 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $3,566,418,000 after buying an additional 682,098 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Applied Materials by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 13,738,382 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,226,581,000 after purchasing an additional 224,296 shares in the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main raised its stake in Applied Materials by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 5,854,099 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $948,762,000 after buying an additional 116,808 shares during the period. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Applied Materials by 10.4% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,189,202 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $1,070,167,000 after purchasing an additional 490,597 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on AMAT. StockNews.com cut Applied Materials from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, September 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their target price on Applied Materials from $260.00 to $230.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 16th. B. Riley reduced their price target on Applied Materials from $300.00 to $280.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $240.00 to $217.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Applied Materials currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $231.05.

Applied Materials Trading Up 6.2 %

Shares of AMAT stock opened at $209.61 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $173.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.09, a P/E/G ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 1.55. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $195.73 and its 200 day simple moving average is $209.89. The company has a quick ratio of 2.09, a current ratio of 2.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. Applied Materials, Inc. has a twelve month low of $129.21 and a twelve month high of $255.89.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 15th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.10. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 39.99% and a net margin of 27.74%. The company had revenue of $6.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.68 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.90 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 8.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Applied Materials Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. Applied Materials’s payout ratio is presently 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.