City State Bank Lowers Holdings in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)

City State Bank lessened its stake in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT – Get Rating) by 2.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,867 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after selling 100 shares during the quarter. City State Bank’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $474,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of AMAT. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 1.7% in the second quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 9,122,174 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $829,935,000 after acquiring an additional 154,413 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in Applied Materials by 0.9% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 7,004,320 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $637,253,000 after purchasing an additional 63,907 shares during the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management SA boosted its holdings in Applied Materials by 1.2% in the third quarter. Pictet Asset Management SA now owns 6,224,697 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $509,890,000 after purchasing an additional 74,236 shares during the last quarter. Cowa LLC purchased a new stake in Applied Materials in the first quarter worth approximately $76,000. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Applied Materials by 32.9% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 5,311,447 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $435,167,000 after purchasing an additional 1,316,029 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.22% of the company’s stock.

Applied Materials Price Performance

NASDAQ AMAT traded down $0.23 on Friday, reaching $122.60. The company had a trading volume of 13,761,522 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,740,443. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 2.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $103.61 billion, a PE ratio of 16.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.61. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $114.83 and its 200 day moving average price is $101.65. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 12 month low of $71.12 and a 12 month high of $142.01.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 16th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $6.74 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.66 billion. Applied Materials had a net margin of 24.57% and a return on equity of 55.08%. Applied Materials’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.89 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 7.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Applied Materials Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 25th will be issued a $0.32 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 24th. This is an increase from Applied Materials’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.04%. Applied Materials’s payout ratio is 13.94%.

Applied Materials announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Monday, March 13th that permits the company to buyback $10.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the manufacturing equipment provider to purchase up to 9.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AMAT has been the topic of several research reports. B. Riley raised their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 17th. KGI Securities upgraded shares of Applied Materials from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 1st. Barclays cut shares of Applied Materials from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $80.00 to $90.00 in a report on Monday, January 23rd. Craig Hallum raised their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $126.00 to $139.00 in a report on Friday, February 17th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $118.00 to $125.00 in a research note on Friday, February 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and twenty-one have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Applied Materials has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $129.16.

Insider Transactions at Applied Materials

In other news, SVP Teri A. Little sold 6,813 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total value of $800,118.72. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 98,332 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,548,110.08. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, SVP Teri A. Little sold 6,813 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total value of $800,118.72. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 98,332 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,548,110.08. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Xun Chen sold 377 shares of Applied Materials stock in a transaction on Friday, January 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $107.80, for a total value of $40,640.60. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 39,868 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,297,770.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Applied Materials Company Profile

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Applied Materials, Inc provides manufacturing equipment, services and software to the semiconductor, display and related industries. It operates through the following segments: Semiconductor Systems, Applied Global Services, and Display & Adjacent Markets. The Semiconductor Systems segment includes semiconductor capital equipment for etch, rapid thermal processing, deposition, chemical mechanical planarization, metrology and inspection, wafer packaging, and ion implantation.