South Shore Capital Advisors Makes New Investment in Applied Materials, Inc. $AMAT

South Shore Capital Advisors bought a new position in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 2,202 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $566,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Applied Materials by 1.0% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,920,984 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $7,125,265,000 after buying an additional 391,540 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 225.4% during the third quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 14,877,672 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,046,057,000 after purchasing an additional 10,305,182 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its stake in shares of 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. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 40.1% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 12,520,114 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,563,376,000 after purchasing an additional 3,583,751 shares during the period. Finally, Sanders Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 42.6% during the third quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 10,978,990 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,247,838,000 after purchasing an additional 3,280,730 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Applied Materials

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

• Positive Sentiment: Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an Overweight rating and raised its price target on AMAT from $470 to $500, increasing implied upside and signaling strong analyst conviction in Applied’s role in AI infrastructure spending. Cantor Fitzgerald Reaffirms Overweight Rating for Applied Materials (AMAT)
• Positive Sentiment: Business press pieces name AMAT among top AI-related chip/infra winners (a “forget NVIDIA” theme), highlighting accelerating demand for AI fabs and equipment that benefits wafer-fab suppliers like Applied. This reinforces momentum and buy-side interest. Forget NVIDIA: 2 AI Stocks Poised to Be Next Big Winners
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks coverage and analyst-blog callouts are placing AMAT alongside other WFE (wafer fab equipment) names as direct beneficiaries of AI-driven capex, echoing the thesis that “pick-and-shovel” suppliers will see sustained order momentum. Forget NVIDIA: 2 AI Stocks Poised to Be Next Big Winners (Zacks)
• Neutral Sentiment: Zacks also notes heightened investor attention on AMAT (pageview/interest-driven coverage), which can amplify short-term flows but doesn’t by itself change fundamentals. Applied Materials, Inc. (AMAT) is Attracting Investor Attention: Here is What You Should Know
• Neutral Sentiment: Broader industry write-ups on Lam Research and ASML show strong WFE trends and peer strength; these validate the sector thesis that benefits AMAT but are not company-specific catalysts. AI Boom Aids LRCX’s Systems Revenue Growth: Can the Momentum Continue? ASML Holding Rises 23.1% YTD: Time to Buy, Sell or Hold the Stock?

Applied Materials Stock Performance

Applied Materials stock opened at $352.62 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $347.78 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $283.95. 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 cap of $279.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.09, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.64. Applied Materials, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $123.74 and a fifty-two week high of $395.95.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last posted 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. The business had revenue of $7.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.88 billion. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 37.52% and a net margin of 27.78%.The business’s revenue was down 2.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.38 EPS. Applied Materials has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 2.440-2.840 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 9.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Applied Materials Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 21st will be issued a $0.53 dividend. This represents a $2.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. This is a positive change from Applied Materials’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.46. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 21st. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio is currently 18.83%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AMAT has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Mizuho increased their price objective on Applied Materials from $370.00 to $410.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 price objective on shares of Applied Materials in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Applied Materials in a research note on Friday, March 27th. KeyCorp increased their price objective on Applied Materials from $380.00 to $450.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Applied Materials from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Applied Materials presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $363.46.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Applied Materials news, CAO Adam Sanders sold 534 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $379.16, for a total value of $202,471.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 4,625 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,753,615. This represents a 10.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Judy Bruner sold 3,969 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $377.02, for a total value of $1,496,392.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 28,589 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,778,624.78. This trade represents a 12.19% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 12,003 shares of company stock worth $4,484,189. 0.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Applied Materials

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.