Applied Materials, Inc. $AMAT Shares Sold by Stephens Inc. AR

Stephens Inc. AR lowered its stake in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 13.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 32,956 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after selling 5,337 shares during the quarter. Stephens Inc. AR’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $8,572,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. AlphaCore Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Applied Materials by 30.2% during the fourth quarter. AlphaCore Capital LLC now owns 4,346 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $1,117,000 after buying an additional 1,008 shares in the last quarter. DNB Asset Management AS lifted its stake in Applied Materials by 51.0% during the fourth quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 280,792 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $72,161,000 after purchasing an additional 94,779 shares during the last quarter. AMJ Financial Wealth Management lifted its stake in Applied Materials by 122.2% during the fourth quarter. AMJ Financial Wealth Management now owns 44,027 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $11,314,000 after purchasing an additional 24,214 shares during the last quarter. IMG Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in Applied Materials by 147.2% during the fourth quarter. IMG Wealth Management Inc. now owns 131 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its stake in Applied Materials by 380.3% during the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 2,522,321 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $648,211,000 after purchasing an additional 1,997,166 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on AMAT. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Applied Materials from $435.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Erste Group Bank upgraded Applied Materials from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $530.00 price objective on Applied Materials in a research note on Friday. Bank of America raised their price objective on Applied Materials from $465.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Applied Materials from $390.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Twenty-seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Applied Materials currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $463.89.

Applied Materials Stock Performance

AMAT stock opened at $436.62 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 1.94 and a current ratio of 2.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $346.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.00, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.66. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 1 year low of $153.47 and a 1 year high of $448.45. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $379.09 and its two-hundred day moving average is $319.44.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 14th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.68 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $7.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.68 billion. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 38.48% and a net margin of 29.31%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.39 earnings per share. Applied Materials has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 3.160-3.560 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 11.28 EPS for the current year.

Applied Materials Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Applied Materials

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

Key Stories Impacting Applied Materials

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

• Positive Sentiment: Applied Materials posted record Q2 results, beating EPS and revenue expectations and lifting its outlook, with management citing strong AI infrastructure spending as a key growth driver. Applied Materials Announces Second Quarter 2026 Results
• Positive Sentiment: Wall Street turned more bullish after the report, with multiple firms raising price targets, including Bank of America, JPMorgan, Mizuho, Morgan Stanley, Needham, and KeyCorp, reinforcing confidence in multi-year earnings growth. Applied Materials Sees Multi-Year AI Boom Driving Record Revenue And Growth Through 2028
• Positive Sentiment: Several analysts highlighted a durable AI-driven semiconductor upcycle, suggesting Applied Materials could sustain elevated demand and margins through 2027-2028. Krish Sankar Reaffirms Buy on Applied Materials
• Neutral Sentiment: The broader market backdrop is weaker, with major indexes down as Treasury yields and oil prices rise, which is adding headwinds for high-valuation tech and AI stocks. Stock Market Today: Dow Falls As Oil Prices, Yields Jump; Applied Materials, Nvidia, Cerebras Slide
• Negative Sentiment: Even with the strong earnings report, the stock is slipping as investors rotate out after a sharp year-to-date rally, showing some concern that expectations may already be very high. Applied Materials slips despite record quarter and strong outlook (AMAT)

Applied Materials Company 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.