Gemmer Asset Management LLC Purchases Shares of 2,258 Applied Materials, Inc. $AMAT

Gemmer Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 2,258 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $462,000.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. increased its stake in Applied Materials by 1.5% during the third quarter. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 4,301 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $881,000 after acquiring an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. Alhambra Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 30.1% during the 3rd quarter. Alhambra Investment Management LLC now owns 2,440 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $500,000 after purchasing an additional 565 shares during the period. Norden Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 7.2% during the 3rd quarter. Norden Group LLC now owns 11,794 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $2,415,000 after purchasing an additional 796 shares during the period. World Investment Advisors increased its position in Applied Materials by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 78,788 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $16,131,000 after purchasing an additional 1,617 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brookstone Capital Management raised its holdings in Applied Materials by 11.5% in the third quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 86,006 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $17,609,000 after buying an additional 8,889 shares during the period. 80.56% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Applied Materials Trading Up 0.1%

NASDAQ:AMAT opened at $260.60 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $206.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 1.67. Applied Materials, Inc. has a one year low of $123.74 and a one year high of $276.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a current ratio of 2.61. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $242.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $205.08.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 13th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.11 by $0.06. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 39.26% and a net margin of 24.67%.The company had revenue of $6.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.68 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.32 EPS. Applied Materials’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Applied Materials has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 1.980-2.380 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 9.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Applied Materials Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 19th will be issued a $0.46 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 19th. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio is currently 21.20%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Adam Sanders sold 609 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.53, for a total value of $155,617.77. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 4,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,127,653.89. This represents a 12.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Teri A. Little sold 4,000 shares of Applied Materials stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.24, for a total value of $952,960.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 84,351 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,095,782.24. This trade represents a 4.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 8,609 shares of company stock worth $2,044,898 over the last quarter. 0.24% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have issued reports on AMAT. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $215.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 11th. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $290.00 price target on shares of Applied Materials in a research report on Friday, November 14th. KeyCorp raised their price objective on Applied Materials from $240.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 2nd. Barclays boosted their price objective on Applied Materials from $170.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Finally, Craig Hallum reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $190.00 target price on shares of Applied Materials in a research note on Friday, November 14th. Twenty investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and fourteen have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $246.78.

Applied Materials Company Profile

Applied Materials, Inc is a U.S.-based supplier of equipment, services and software used to manufacture semiconductor chips, flat panel displays and other advanced materials. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, the company designs and sells capital equipment and related technologies that enable production of integrated circuits, display panels and materials used across the electronics supply chain.

Applied Materials’ offerings include process equipment and factory software that support critical steps in device fabrication, such as deposition, etch, implantation, inspection and metrology, as well as systems for packaging and advanced heterogeneous integration.