Capital Investment Advisors LLC Grows Holdings in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)

Capital Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 7,892 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 119 shares during the period. Capital Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $1,595,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMAT. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in Applied Materials during the 1st quarter worth $773,611,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in Applied Materials by 126.4% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,254,952 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $464,974,000 after buying an additional 1,259,111 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position 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 worth $15,469,028,000 after purchasing an additional 891,446 shares during the last quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Applied Materials in the 1st quarter worth about $162,873,000. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in shares of Applied Materials by 20.4% in the 1st quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,623,048 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $953,411,000 after purchasing an additional 784,780 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AMAT has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Dbs Bank downgraded shares of Applied Materials from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $260.00 target price on shares of Applied Materials in a research report on Friday, August 16th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $245.00 to $225.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $275.00 to $270.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $229.14.

Applied Materials Trading Up 1.7 %

Applied Materials stock opened at $186.36 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $195.61 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $209.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $154.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.42, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.54. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 52-week low of $129.21 and a 52-week high of $255.89. 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 (NASDAQ:AMAT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 15th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $6.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.68 billion. Applied Materials had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 39.99%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.90 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 8.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Applied Materials Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.86%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio is presently 18.39%.

Applied Materials Company Profile

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.