Meritage Portfolio Management Buys New Holdings in Applied Materials, Inc. $AMAT

Meritage Portfolio Management bought a new stake in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 1,310 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $240,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AMAT. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Applied Materials in the first quarter valued at approximately $1,085,600,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC purchased a new stake in Applied Materials in the second quarter valued at approximately $882,396,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position 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 valued at $445,056,000 after buying an additional 2,944,193 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position 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 valued at $808,853,000 after buying an additional 1,691,428 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Applied Materials Trading Up 4.5%

Shares of AMAT stock opened at $219.48 on Tuesday. 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 company has a market cap of $174.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.16, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 1.82. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $183.33 and a 200-day simple moving average of $172.31. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 1-year low of $123.74 and a 1-year high of $226.49.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 14th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.48 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $7.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.21 billion. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 40.96% and a net margin of 23.88%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.12 EPS. Applied Materials has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 1.910-2.310 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 9.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Applied Materials Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on AMAT. KeyCorp upped their target price on Applied Materials from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Applied Materials in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Mizuho reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $175.00 price target (down from $200.00) on shares of Applied Materials in a report on Friday, September 12th. Evercore ISI reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $209.00 price target on shares of Applied Materials in a report on Friday, August 15th. Finally, B. Riley boosted their price target on Applied Materials from $200.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Eighteen research 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $204.54.

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.