Motco Grows Stock Holdings in Applied Materials, Inc. $AMAT

Motco lifted its position in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 9,900.0% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 800 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 792 shares during the quarter. Motco’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $144,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of AMAT. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Applied Materials in the 1st quarter valued at $1,085,600,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new stake in shares of Applied Materials in the 2nd quarter worth about $882,396,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 2,401.0% in the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,066,817 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $445,056,000 after buying an additional 2,944,193 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 43.6% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,573,673 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $808,853,000 after buying an additional 1,691,428 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 23.6% in the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,860,838 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $1,140,836,000 after buying an additional 1,502,995 shares during the last quarter. 80.56% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 10th. Daiwa America downgraded shares of Applied Materials from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 20th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $200.00 to $170.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 15th. Summit Insights downgraded shares of Applied Materials from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 15th. Finally, Wolfe Research cut their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $230.00 to $200.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 15th. Eighteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $209.15.

Applied Materials Price Performance

Shares of AMAT opened at $235.75 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $195.34 and a 200-day moving average price of $179.65. Applied Materials, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $123.74 and a fifty-two week high of $237.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $187.81 billion, a PE ratio of 28.10, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 1.76 and a current ratio of 2.50.

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

Applied Materials Dividend Announcement

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

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.