Applied Materials, Inc. $AMAT Shares Bought by Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC

Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 6.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 40,051 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,407 shares during the quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Group LLC’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $10,293,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Highline Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in Applied Materials by 48.7% during the 4th quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 116 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the period. Marquette Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Applied Materials by 150.0% during the 3rd quarter. Marquette Asset Management LLC now owns 125 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the period. Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Applied Materials during the 3rd quarter worth $26,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Applied Materials during the 3rd quarter worth $31,000. Finally, Optima Capital LLC acquired a new position in Applied Materials during the 4th quarter worth $39,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Judy Bruner sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $391.71, for a total transaction of $979,275.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 26,089 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,219,322.19. This represents a 8.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Adam Sanders sold 534 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $379.16, for a total value of $202,471.44. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 4,625 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,753,615. This represents a 10.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 12,003 shares of company stock valued at $4,484,189 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AMAT has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Zacks Research upgraded Applied Materials from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. KeyCorp boosted their price target on Applied Materials from $380.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Citigroup upped their price objective on Applied Materials from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Summit Insights upgraded Applied Materials from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, UBS Group set a $430.00 price objective on Applied Materials in a report on Friday, February 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have given a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Applied Materials has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $368.29.

Applied Materials Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of Applied Materials stock opened at $394.26 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.94, a current ratio of 2.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The firm has a market cap of $312.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.64. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $356.68 and a 200-day simple moving average of $292.64. Applied Materials, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $132.80 and a fifty-two week high of $407.29.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 12th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.21 by $0.17. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 37.52% and a net margin of 27.78%.The business had revenue of $7.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.88 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.38 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. Applied Materials has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 2.440-2.840 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 9.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Applied Materials Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 11th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.53 per share. This is a positive change from Applied Materials’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.46. This represents a $2.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 21st. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 18.83%.

Applied Materials Profile

Applied Materials, Inc is a U.S.-based supplier of equipment, services and software used to manufacture semiconductor chips, flat panel displays and other advanced materials. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, the company designs and sells capital equipment and related technologies that enable production of integrated circuits, display panels and materials used across the electronics supply chain.

Applied Materials’ offerings include process equipment and factory software that support critical steps in device fabrication, such as deposition, etch, implantation, inspection and metrology, as well as systems for packaging and advanced heterogeneous integration.