Jacobs & Co. CA Raises Position in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)

Jacobs & Co. CA raised its stake in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 4.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 68,673 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,690 shares during the period. Jacobs & Co. CA’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $11,168,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in AMAT. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. raised its position in Applied Materials by 341.0% during the third quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 2,857,155 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $577,288,000 after purchasing an additional 2,209,218 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 67.8% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 4,663,133 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $942,187,000 after buying an additional 1,884,153 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 29.8% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 6,571,178 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $1,327,707,000 after buying an additional 1,509,439 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 262.5% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,390,501 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $280,951,000 after buying an additional 1,006,937 shares during the period. Finally, Alkeon Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 87.7% in the third quarter. Alkeon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,877,133 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $379,275,000 after buying an additional 877,133 shares during the period. 80.56% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on AMAT. Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on Applied Materials from $260.00 to $250.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price objective on Applied Materials from $220.00 to $210.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 29th. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on Applied Materials from $250.00 to $230.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Applied Materials in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC dropped their target price on Applied Materials from $240.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $218.71.

Applied Materials Price Performance

AMAT stock traded down $4.80 during trading on Friday, hitting $172.19. The stock had a trading volume of 3,449,425 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,611,639. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 2.51 and a quick ratio of 1.87. Applied Materials, Inc. has a twelve month low of $148.48 and a twelve month high of $255.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $140.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.00, a PEG ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.53. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $174.14 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $193.58.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 14th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.32 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.19 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $7.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.96 billion. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 39.26% and a net margin of 26.41%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.12 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 9.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Applied Materials Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.93%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. Applied Materials’s payout ratio is presently 18.58%.

Applied Materials 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.