Applied Materials, Inc. $AMAT Shares Newly Bought by USA Financial Formulas

USA Financial Formulas acquired a new position in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 2,442 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,249,000. Applied Materials accounts for approximately 0.2% of USA Financial Formulas’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest holding.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp grew its position in 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 buying an additional 32,018,892 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new position in Applied Materials during the 2nd quarter valued at about $5,252,863,000. Auto Owners Insurance Co raised its position in shares of Applied Materials by 25,824.4% during the 4th quarter. Auto Owners Insurance Co now owns 3,370,167 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $86,610,000 after buying an additional 3,357,167 shares in the last quarter. Jupiter Topco LLC bought a new stake in shares of Applied Materials during the 2nd quarter worth about $1,512,287,000. Finally, Amundi raised its position in shares of Applied Materials by 19.0% during the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 7,808,207 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $5,645,344,000 after buying an additional 1,246,876 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Applied Materials

Here are the key news stories impacting Applied Materials this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Applied Materials opened its $5 billion EPIC Center in Sunnyvale, California, described as the world’s largest semiconductor equipment and process-technology research facility. The investment should strengthen the company’s ability to develop equipment for advanced chips and capitalize on long-term AI and semiconductor capacity growth. Applied Materials opens $5B semiconductor innovation center
• Positive Sentiment: Needham lowered its Applied Materials price target from $740 to $580 but maintained a “buy” rating, indicating that the recent pullback has created what the firm considers meaningful upside. Other recent commentary also highlights AMAT’s broad equipment portfolio and strategic position in semiconductor manufacturing.
• Positive Sentiment: Investors are evaluating whether the current decline could offer an attractive entry point. Historical rebounds after sharp selloffs, continued semiconductor capacity expansion, and expectations for a sales recovery support the longer-term bullish case. Has Buying Applied Materials Stock’s Dips Paid Off?
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst commentary is mixed: some reports identify Applied Materials as a growth-at-a-reasonable-price opportunity, while others present a more cautious view of technology stocks. ETF activity has also been inconsistent, with 31 funds adding AMAT on October 13 but ETFs collectively selling shares on October 14.
• Negative Sentiment: Chip-equipment stocks are recording unusually long losing streaks as investors question whether AI-related spending can continue at its current pace. Those sector-wide concerns are currently outweighing the potential benefits of the new research center and are contributing to AMAT’s decline. Chip Equipment Stocks Notch Historic Losing Streaks

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on AMAT. New Street Research reduced their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $580.00 to $525.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 14th. Evercore set a $590.00 price objective on shares of Applied Materials in a research note on Thursday. Needham & Company LLC dropped their target price on Applied Materials from $740.00 to $580.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. UBS Group boosted their target price on Applied Materials from $675.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 1st. Finally, Mizuho cut their target price on Applied Materials from $650.00 to $590.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 25th. Thirty analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $632.70.

Applied Materials Price Performance

NASDAQ:AMAT opened at $409.29 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $480.52 and its 200 day moving average price is $485.08. The firm has a market cap of $324.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.28, a PEG ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 1.60. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 52-week low of $203.40 and a 52-week high of $739.67. 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 (NASDAQ:AMAT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 13th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $3.50 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.40 by $0.10. Applied Materials had a net margin of 30.05% and a return on equity of 38.02%. The firm had revenue of $9.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.99 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.48 earnings per share. Applied Materials’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Applied Materials has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 3.820-4.220 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 12.79 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 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 19th will be paid a $0.53 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 19th. This represents a $2.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. Applied Materials’s payout ratio is currently 18.28%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Judy Bruner sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $465.00, for a total transaction of $465,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 25,544 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,877,960. This represents a 3.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 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 sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 128,613 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $61,637,780.25. This represents a 5.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 9,225 shares of company stock worth $4,454,181 in the last ninety days. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Applied Materials Profile

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.