WBI Investments LLC Makes New Investment in Applied Materials, Inc. $AMAT

WBI Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 12,133 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,221,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Sanders Capital LLC purchased a new position in Applied Materials during the second quarter valued at $1,409,320,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Applied Materials during the 1st quarter valued at about $1,085,600,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new position in shares of Applied Materials during the 2nd quarter valued at about $882,396,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Applied Materials by 2,401.0% during the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,066,817 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $445,056,000 after purchasing an additional 2,944,193 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 43.6% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,573,673 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $808,853,000 after purchasing an additional 1,691,428 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on AMAT. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Applied Materials from $256.00 to $252.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Daiwa Capital Markets reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $170.00 price objective (down from $185.00) on shares of Applied Materials in a report on Wednesday, August 20th. KeyCorp increased their target price on Applied Materials from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Applied Materials in a research report on Friday. Finally, Cfra Research upgraded shares of Applied Materials to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 15th. Nineteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fourteen have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $226.74.

Applied Materials Trading Up 1.2%

AMAT stock opened at $228.71 on Tuesday. Applied Materials, Inc. has a twelve month low of $123.74 and a twelve month high of $242.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $182.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.84. The company has a quick ratio of 1.76, a current ratio of 2.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $213.61 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $187.88.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 13th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.17 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.11 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $6.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.68 billion. Applied Materials had a net margin of 23.88% and a return on equity of 40.96%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.32 EPS. Applied Materials has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 1.980-2.380 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 9.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Applied Materials Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.46 per share. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.20%.

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.