Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) Shares Sold by Aprio Wealth Management LLC

Aprio Wealth Management LLC reduced its holdings in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 7.6% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,476 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after selling 121 shares during the quarter. Aprio Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $240,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMAT. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Applied Materials by 1.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,808,047 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $7,841,178,000 after acquiring an additional 672,548 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,826,373 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,994,968,000 after purchasing an additional 371,866 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 16,413,112 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $3,316,269,000 after buying an additional 858,122 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 8,861,933 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $1,790,554,000 after buying an additional 318,445 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in Applied Materials by 29.8% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 6,571,178 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,327,707,000 after acquiring an additional 1,509,439 shares during the last quarter. 80.56% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on AMAT shares. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price target on Applied Materials from $220.00 to $210.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $230.00 to $202.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $270.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $220.00 to $210.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC decreased their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $240.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Applied Materials presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $218.24.

Applied Materials Stock Down 0.5 %

NASDAQ:AMAT opened at $170.86 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $173.69 and a 200 day simple moving average of $192.18. Applied Materials, Inc. has a one year low of $149.84 and a one year high of $255.89. The company has a market capitalization of $139.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a current ratio of 2.51.

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

Applied Materials Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 18.58%.

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.