Wealth Management Associates Inc. Increases Position in Applied Materials, Inc. $AMAT

Wealth Management Associates Inc. increased its stake in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 5.5% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,618 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 84 shares during the quarter. Wealth Management Associates Inc.’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $296,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Quaker Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 133.3% in the 2nd quarter. Quaker Wealth Management LLC now owns 218 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 873 shares in the last quarter. Oarsman Capital Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 15.9% in the 2nd quarter. Oarsman Capital Inc. now owns 1,638 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $300,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Jackson Hole Trust grew its stake in Applied Materials by 19.2% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of Jackson Hole Trust now owns 4,314 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $790,000 after acquiring an additional 694 shares during the last quarter. Motco grew its stake in Applied Materials by 9,900.0% in the 2nd quarter. Motco now owns 800 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $144,000 after acquiring an additional 792 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC grew its stake in Applied Materials by 31.1% in the 2nd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 19,730 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,612,000 after acquiring an additional 4,686 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on AMAT shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 15th. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 15th. Bank of America raised shares of Applied Materials from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $180.00 to $250.00 in a research note on Monday, October 13th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $220.00 to $205.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 15th. 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 data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $209.15.

Applied Materials Price Performance

NASDAQ:AMAT opened at $227.64 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $181.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.82. The company has a current ratio of 2.50, a quick ratio of 1.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The company’s 50-day moving average is $193.84 and its two-hundred day moving average is $179.02. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 12-month low of $123.74 and a 12-month high of $235.79.

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

Applied Materials Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be issued a $0.46 dividend. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 20th. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio is 21.93%.

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.