Applied Materials, Inc. $AMAT Shares Sold by Candriam S.C.A.

Candriam S.C.A. reduced its holdings in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 19.5% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 281,482 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after selling 68,359 shares during the period. Candriam S.C.A.’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $51,533,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Applied Materials during the 1st quarter worth $1,085,600,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new position in shares of Applied Materials during the second quarter worth about $882,396,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Applied Materials by 2,401.0% in the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,066,817 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $445,056,000 after purchasing an additional 2,944,193 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its holdings in Applied Materials by 23.6% in the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,860,838 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,140,836,000 after buying an additional 1,502,995 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Wolfe Research decreased their target price on Applied Materials from $230.00 to $200.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 15th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Applied Materials in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Cfra Research upgraded Applied Materials to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 15th. Finally, TD Cowen dropped their target price on Applied Materials from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 15th. Eighteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $212.31.

Applied Materials Stock Up 0.9%

AMAT opened at $230.73 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $209.71 and its 200 day moving average price is $186.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 2.50 and a quick ratio of 1.76. The stock has a market cap of $183.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.84. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 12 month low of $123.74 and a 12 month high of $242.50.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 14th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $7.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.21 billion. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 40.96% and a net margin of 23.88%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.12 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 9.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Applied Materials Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.46 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 21.93%.

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.