Level Four Advisory Services LLC Cuts Position in Applied Materials, Inc. $AMAT

Level Four Advisory Services LLC trimmed its position in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 15.4% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 40,677 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after selling 7,410 shares during the period. Level Four Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $8,328,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Applied Materials in the 2nd quarter worth $1,604,002,000. Sanders Capital LLC bought a new stake in Applied Materials during the second quarter worth approximately $1,409,320,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its position in Applied Materials by 72.5% during the second quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 13,564,120 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,483,183,000 after purchasing an additional 5,700,349 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 1,704.0% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,439,598 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $499,483,000 after purchasing an additional 2,304,369 shares during the period. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Applied Materials by 417.3% during the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 1,732,015 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $317,053,000 after purchasing an additional 1,397,217 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Brice Hill sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $361.21, for a total transaction of $1,806,050.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 138,565 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,051,063.65. This trade represents a 3.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Judy Bruner sold 3,969 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $377.02, for a total transaction of $1,496,392.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 28,589 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,778,624.78. This trade represents a 12.19% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 12,003 shares of company stock worth $4,484,189 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on AMAT. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $450.00 price objective on shares of Applied Materials in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $340.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Applied Materials from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on Applied Materials from $260.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada set a $430.00 price target on Applied Materials in a report on Friday, February 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Applied Materials has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $363.46.

Applied Materials Stock Down 0.0%

Shares of NASDAQ AMAT opened at $372.18 on Tuesday. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 52-week low of $123.74 and a 52-week high of $395.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $295.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.09, a PEG ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.65. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $319.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $251.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 1.94 and a current ratio of 2.71.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 period in the previous year, the company posted $2.38 EPS. Applied Materials’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. Sell-side analysts expect that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 9.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Applied Materials Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 19th will be paid a $0.46 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 19th. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio is 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.