Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) PT Raised to $150.00 at TD Cowen

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT – Get Rating) had its price target hoisted by TD Cowen from $145.00 to $150.00 in a report released on Friday, Briefing.com reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock. TD Cowen’s target price suggests a potential upside of 18.16% from the stock’s current price.

AMAT has been the subject of several other research reports. Craig Hallum raised their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $126.00 to $139.00 in a research report on Friday, February 17th. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Applied Materials from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $133.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Thursday, April 6th. Susquehanna dropped their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $125.00 to $112.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $125.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $279.00 to $271.00 in a report on Friday, February 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and twenty-two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $134.96.

Applied Materials Price Performance

NASDAQ AMAT opened at $126.95 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 2.31 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $117.11 and its 200 day moving average price is $111.31. Applied Materials has a 1 year low of $71.12 and a 1 year high of $132.06. The company has a market cap of $107.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.75, a PEG ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 1.60.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 18th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.84 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $6.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.37 billion. Applied Materials had a net margin of 24.36% and a return on equity of 54.45%. Applied Materials’s quarterly revenue was up 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.85 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Applied Materials will post 7.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Applied Materials announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Monday, March 13th that authorizes the company to repurchase $10.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the manufacturing equipment provider to buy up to 9.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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 company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total value of $800,118.72. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 98,332 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,548,110.08. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Omkaram Nalamasu sold 29,444 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.70, for a total transaction of $3,671,666.80. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 194,298 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,228,960.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Applied Materials

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of AMAT. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its position in Applied Materials by 5.6% in the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 1,020,894 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $134,555,000 after acquiring an additional 54,261 shares in the last quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. lifted its stake in Applied Materials by 92.3% during the first quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 3,180 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $419,000 after purchasing an additional 1,526 shares during the last quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. increased its position in Applied Materials by 21.7% during the first quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 8,981 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $1,184,000 after buying an additional 1,604 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Applied Materials during the first quarter worth approximately $315,000. Finally, West Family Investments Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 12.6% in the first quarter. West Family Investments Inc. now owns 2,215 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $292,000 after purchasing an additional 248 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.22% 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.