Y.D. More Investments Ltd Purchases 2,500 Shares of Applied Materials, Inc. $AMAT

Y.D. More Investments Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 4,166.7% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 2,560 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,500 shares during the quarter. Y.D. More Investments Ltd’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $874,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in AMAT. Private Wealth Management Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Applied Materials by 4.9% during the 1st quarter. Private Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 531 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $181,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. grew its stake in Applied Materials by 1.3% during the first quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. now owns 2,082 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $712,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares during the period. Horst & Graben Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Applied Materials by 2.1% in the first quarter. Horst & Graben Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,304 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $446,000 after purchasing an additional 27 shares in the last quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Applied Materials by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,908 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $490,000 after purchasing an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tradition Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Applied Materials by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Tradition Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,031 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $265,000 after buying an additional 31 shares during the period. 80.56% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on AMAT shares. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Applied Materials from $715.00 to $740.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, June 26th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $525.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. B. Riley Financial boosted their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $550.00 to $790.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 26th. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $540.00 to $720.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $525.00 price target on shares of Applied Materials in a report on Friday, May 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $589.48.

Applied Materials Trading Down 4.5%

Shares of Applied Materials stock opened at $575.39 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.80 and a current ratio of 2.51. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 52 week low of $154.46 and a 52 week high of $739.67. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $521.52 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $405.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $456.84 billion, a PE ratio of 54.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.57.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 14th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.86 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.18. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 36.97% and a net margin of 29.31%.The firm had revenue of $7.91 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.68 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.39 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. Applied Materials has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 3.160-3.560 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 12.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Applied Materials Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.53 per share. This represents a $2.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 20th. Applied Materials’s payout ratio is 19.91%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Applied Materials

In other news, Director Thomas J. Iannotti sold 9,250 shares of Applied Materials stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $599.77, for a total transaction of $5,547,872.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 40,559 shares in the company, valued at $24,326,071.43. This trade represents a 18.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Omkaram Nalamasu sold 24,263 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $593.43, for a total transaction of $14,398,392.09. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 146,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $87,184,361.88. The trade was a 14.17% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 278,088 shares of company stock worth $169,654,805 in the last ninety days. 0.30% of the stock is currently 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.