180 Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT – Get Rating) by 26.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the latest filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned his 20,428 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider after acquiring an additional 4,274 shares during the quarter. 180 Wealth Advisors LLC’s Applied Materials holdings were valued at $2,361,000 as of the most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AMAT. Cowa LLC purchased approximately $76,000 of new Applied Materials stock in the first quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC increased its Applied Materials shares by 87.2% in the fourth quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC owns 7,240,747 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider worth $75104,000 after he purchased an additional 3,373,082 shares during this period. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its Applied Materials shares by 32.9% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC owns 5,311,447 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider valued at $435,167,000 after purchasing an additional 1,316,029 shares during this period. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can purchased new shares of Applied Materials worth $95,175,000 during the third quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in Applied Materials by 31.4% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,598,930 shares of manufacturing equipment provider valued at $376.79 million after purchasing an additional 1,099,462 shares in the previous quarter. Institutional investors own 75.22% of the company’s shares.
Applied Materials Trading Down 0.1 %
AMAT shares fell $0.08 in intraday trading on Tuesday to reach $111.71. His 1,041,586 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, but the average trading volume was 6,340,808 of his shares. Applied Materials hit a 52-week low of $71.12 and a 52-week high of $125.62. His 50-day simple moving average for this stock is $117.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $105.77. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 2.31 and a debt to equity ratio of 0.41. The stock has a market cap of $94.41 billion, a price/earnings ratio of 14.99, a PEG ratio of 2.88, and a beta of 1.61.
Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT – Get Rating) reported final results on Thursday, Feb. 16. The manufacturing equipment provider posted his $2.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, $0.10 above analyst consensus expectations of $1.93. Applied Materials’ net profit margin was 24.57% and return on equity was 55.08%. The company made $6.74 billion in revenue during the quarter, compared to a consensus estimate of $6.66 billion. His earnings per share for the company in the same period last year were $1.89. Applied Materials revenues increased 7.5% compared to the same period last year. Equity analysts expect Applied Materials to post his 7.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Applied Materials Increases Dividend
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend payable on Thursday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 25 will be paid a dividend of $0.32 per share. The ex-dividend date for this dividend is May 24 (Wednesday). This is a positive change from Applied Materials’ previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. This represents his $1.28 dividend and his 1.15% yield on an annualized basis. Applied Materials’ current dividend payout ratio is 13.94%.
Applied Materials Inc. announced on Monday, March 13, that the company’s board of directors approved a stock repurchase plan that would allow the company to repurchase $10 billion of its stock. The repurchase authorization allows manufacturing equipment providers to purchase up to a 9.7% stake through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans often indicate that a company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.
Analyst upgrades and downgrades
Several equity research analysts are eyeing AMAT shares. StockNews.com featured shares in Applied Materials in its research notes on Thursday, March 16th. They gave the company a “buy” rating. BNP Paribas has downgraded Applied Materials from ‘outperform’ to ‘neutral’ and has set a price target of $133.00. In an investigative report on Thursday, April 6th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed its Buy rating and set a price target of $135.00 for Applied Materials stock in its research report on Wednesday, March 1. Mizuho raised its price target for Applied Materials from $132.00 to $136.00, giving the company a “buy” rating in its research report on Friday, February 17. Finally, Barclays downgraded Applied Materials’ stock from an ‘equal weight’ rating to an ‘underweight’ rating and raised its price target from $80.00 to $90.00 in his Monday 23 January report. One research analyst gave a sell rating, six assigned a hold rating, and 21 gave the firm a buy rating. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “moderate buy” and a consensus target price of $129.31.
insider bet
In separate news, SVP Omkaram Nalamasu sold 29,444 shares in the company in a transaction on Monday 20th March. The shares sold for an average of $124.70, giving him a total of $3,671,666.80. After the transaction, the Senior Vice President now owns 194,298 shares of the Company’s stock valued at approximately $24,228,960.60. The sale was disclosed in legal filings with the SEC that can be accessed via this hyperlink. In related news, Director Xun Chen sold 377 shares in the company in a transaction that took place on Friday, January 20th. The shares sold at an average price of $107.80, and the total transaction value he had was $40,640.60. Following the transaction, the directors now own directly 39,868 shares of the Company’s stock valued at approximately $4,297,770.40. The transaction was disclosed in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that can be accessed via this hyperlink. Also, SVP Omkaram Nalamasu sold 29,444 shares in the company in a transaction on Monday 20th March. The shares sold at an average price of $124.70 for a total trading value of $3,671,666.80. Following the closing of the transaction, the Senior Vice President now directly owns 194,298 shares of the Company’s stock valued at $24,228,960.60. Please see here for the disclosure of this sale. Insiders say that in the past three months he has sold 36,634 shares of company stock worth $4,512,426. His 0.25% of the shares are owned by insiders.
Applied Materials Company Profile
(get rating)
Applied Materials provides manufacturing equipment, services and software to the semiconductor, display and related industries. The Company operates in the Semiconductor Systems, Applied Global Services, Display and Adjacent Markets segments. The Semiconductor Systems segment includes semiconductor capital equipment for etching, rapid thermal processing, deposition, chemical-mechanical planarization, metrology and inspection, wafer packaging, and ion implantation.
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