Applied Materials, Inc. $AMAT Shares Acquired by Stiles Financial Services Inc

Stiles Financial Services Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 22.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,436 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,920 shares during the period. Stiles Financial Services Inc’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $2,137,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Applied Materials in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,604,002,000. Sanders Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Materials in the 2nd quarter worth $1,409,320,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its holdings in Applied Materials by 72.5% in the 2nd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 13,564,120 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,483,183,000 after purchasing an additional 5,700,349 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in Applied Materials by 1,704.0% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,439,598 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $499,483,000 after acquiring an additional 2,304,369 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 417.3% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,732,015 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $317,053,000 after purchasing an additional 1,397,217 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AMAT has been the subject of several recent research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada assumed coverage on shares of Applied Materials in a report on Wednesday, January 14th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $385.00 target price for the company. TD Cowen upped their target price on Applied Materials from $260.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 4th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $325.00 price target on shares of Applied Materials in a report on Monday, January 12th. B. Riley restated a “buy” rating on shares of Applied Materials in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Applied Materials from $290.00 to $350.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Twenty-three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $286.89.

Applied Materials Price Performance

AMAT stock opened at $318.23 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $252.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 1.67. The company has a quick ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 2.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 52-week low of $123.74 and a 52-week high of $331.00. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $265.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $220.06.

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

Applied Materials Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced 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. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 19th. Applied Materials’s payout ratio is presently 21.20%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Teri A. Little sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.24, for a total transaction of $952,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 84,351 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,095,782.24. The trade was a 4.53% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Adam Sanders sold 609 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 1st. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,127,653.89. The trade was a 12.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 8,609 shares of company stock valued at $2,044,898. 0.24% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.