Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) Shares Sold by Valued Wealth Advisors LLC

Valued Wealth Advisors LLC lowered its stake in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 23.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 319 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after selling 98 shares during the quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $64,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Kovack Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Applied Materials by 3.6% during the first quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. now owns 2,847 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $587,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 1.6% during the first quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 7,430 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $1,532,000 after buying an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC raised its position in shares of Applied Materials by 7.1% in the first quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 34,318 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $7,077,000 after buying an additional 2,285 shares during the last quarter. Diversify Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Applied Materials in the first quarter worth about $699,000. Finally, Prosperity Consulting Group LLC boosted its position in Applied Materials by 31.9% during the first quarter. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC now owns 2,435 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $502,000 after acquiring an additional 589 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AMAT has been the topic of a number of research reports. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $260.00 target price on shares of Applied Materials in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Mizuho lowered their price objective on Applied Materials from $245.00 to $225.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Applied Materials from $260.00 to $235.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $275.00 to $270.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $240.00 to $217.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $229.14.

Applied Materials Stock Up 1.0 %

AMAT stock traded up $1.88 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $183.46. The company had a trading volume of 264,535 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,058,696. Applied Materials, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $136.67 and a fifty-two week high of $255.89. The company has a market capitalization of $151.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 1.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 2.09 and a current ratio of 2.86. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $192.04 and a 200 day simple moving average of $207.74.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 15th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $6.78 billion for 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 company’s revenue was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.90 EPS. Analysts forecast that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 8.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Applied Materials Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.87%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. Applied Materials’s payout ratio is 17.98%.

About Applied Materials

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.