Field & Main Bank Reduces Holdings in Applied Materials, Inc. $AMAT

Field & Main Bank lowered its stake in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 5.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 3,145 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after selling 170 shares during the quarter. Field & Main Bank’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $576,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Applied Materials during the 1st quarter valued at $1,085,600,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new position in shares of Applied Materials during the second quarter valued at about $882,396,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 2,401.0% during the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,066,817 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $445,056,000 after purchasing an additional 2,944,193 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 43.6% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,573,673 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $808,853,000 after purchasing an additional 1,691,428 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its holdings in Applied Materials by 23.6% during the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,860,838 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,140,836,000 after purchasing an additional 1,502,995 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Applied Materials Trading Up 3.6%

NASDAQ:AMAT opened at $235.75 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $187.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.10, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 2.50 and a quick ratio of 1.76. Applied Materials, Inc. has a one year low of $123.74 and a one year high of $237.39. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $195.34 and its 200 day simple moving average is $179.65.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 14th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $7.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.21 billion. Applied Materials had a net margin of 23.88% and a return on equity of 40.96%. The business’s revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.12 earnings per share. Applied Materials has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 1.910-2.310 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 9.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Applied Materials Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 20th will be given a dividend of $0.46 per share. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio is 21.93%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on AMAT. Redburn Atlantic lowered Applied Materials from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $225.00 to $200.00 in a research report on Monday, July 7th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Applied Materials in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Applied Materials from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $172.00 to $209.00 in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $209.00 target price on shares of Applied Materials in a research report on Friday, August 15th. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $170.00 price target (down previously from $185.00) on shares of Applied Materials in a research report on Wednesday, August 20th. Eighteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $209.15.

Applied Materials Company Profile

Applied Materials, Inc engages in the provision of manufacturing equipment, services, and software to the semiconductor, display, and related industries. The company operates through three segments: Semiconductor Systems, Applied Global Services, and Display and Adjacent Markets. The Semiconductor Systems segment develops, manufactures, and sells various manufacturing equipment that is used to fabricate semiconductor chips or integrated circuits.