Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) Stock Has Consensus Target Price of $632.70 According to Brokerages

Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirty-nine ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and thirty have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $632.70.

A number of research firms have issued reports on AMAT. Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $650.00 to $590.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 25th. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating and issued a $700.00 price target on shares of Applied Materials in a research note on Friday, August 14th. Evercore set a $590.00 target price on Applied Materials in a research report on Thursday, October 15th. William Blair began coverage on Applied Materials in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $710.00 price target (up from $550.00) on shares of Applied Materials in a research report on Monday, August 3rd.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Adam Sanders sold 725 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $544.56, for a total value of $394,806.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 3,181 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,732,245.36. This represents a 18.56% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CFO Brice Hill sold 7,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $479.25, for a total transaction of $3,594,375.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 128,613 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $61,637,780.25. This trade represents a 5.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders have sold 9,225 shares of company stock worth $4,454,181. 0.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Materials

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. BlackRock Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 80,212,518 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $57,993,650,000 after acquiring an additional 1,237,685 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Applied Materials by 85.4% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 69,525,842 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $50,267,184,000 after purchasing an additional 32,018,892 shares during the period. Amundi boosted its position in shares of Applied Materials by 19.0% in the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 7,808,207 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,645,344,000 after purchasing an additional 1,246,876 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in Applied Materials by 16.2% during the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 7,713,599 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $5,576,932,000 after buying an additional 1,073,879 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in Applied Materials during the 2nd quarter worth about $5,252,863,000. 80.56% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Applied Materials Trading Down 4.0%

Shares of NASDAQ AMAT opened at $374.53 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $297.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.29, a PEG ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 1.60. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $455.30 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $443.98. The company has a quick ratio of 1.79, a current ratio of 2.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Applied Materials has a 52-week low of $203.40 and a 52-week high of $739.67.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 13th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $3.50 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.40 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $9.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.99 billion. Applied Materials had a net margin of 30.05% and a return on equity of 38.02%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 24.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.48 EPS. Applied Materials has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.820-4.220 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Applied Materials will post 12.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Applied Materials Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 19th will be given a dividend of $0.53 per share. This represents a $2.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 19th. Applied Materials’s payout ratio is 18.28%.

About Applied Materials

Applied Materials, Inc is a technology company that supplies equipment, services and software used to manufacture semiconductors and advanced displays. Its products help customers fabricate the integrated circuits and other components used in computers, mobile devices, data centers, automobiles and a range of connected technologies.

The company’s offerings include systems for materials engineering, wafer fabrication, inspection and process control, along with equipment and services designed to improve manufacturing productivity and yield.