New York State Common Retirement Fund Sells 137,582 Shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)

New York State Common Retirement Fund decreased its holdings in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 7.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,840,727 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after selling 137,582 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $298,327,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Jennison Associates LLC raised its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 47.0% in the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 2,480,780 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $343,464,000 after acquiring an additional 793,610 shares during the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 40.0% in the fourth quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 2,724,217 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $441,514,000 after acquiring an additional 778,716 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 6.0% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,995,287 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,383,848,000 after acquiring an additional 570,080 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 13,929.6% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 515,028 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $834,710,000 after acquiring an additional 511,357 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ raised its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 117.6% in the third quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ now owns 926,917 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $128,341,000 after acquiring an additional 500,900 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on AMAT. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $175.00 to $230.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Applied Materials from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $220.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $138.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $180.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft started coverage on shares of Applied Materials in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $225.00 price objective for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $201.50.

Applied Materials Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of AMAT stock traded down $0.31 on Monday, hitting $189.46. The stock had a trading volume of 7,147,502 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,214,718. Applied Materials, Inc. has a twelve month low of $109.15 and a twelve month high of $214.91. The firm has a market cap of $157.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.02, a PEG ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 1.59. The company has a current ratio of 2.71, a quick ratio of 1.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $202.61 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $170.03.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.23. Applied Materials had a net margin of 27.03% and a return on equity of 43.56%. The company had revenue of $6.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.48 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.03 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 8.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Applied Materials Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 23rd will be given a $0.40 dividend. This is a boost from Applied Materials’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 22nd. Applied Materials’s payout ratio is currently 15.06%.

Applied Materials Company 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.