First Western Trust Bank Takes $212,000 Position in Applied Materials, Inc. $AMAT

First Western Trust Bank purchased a new stake in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 1,160 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $212,000.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of AMAT. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Materials in the first quarter valued at approximately $1,085,600,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC acquired a new stake in Applied Materials in the 2nd quarter valued at $882,396,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Applied Materials by 2,401.0% in the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,066,817 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $445,056,000 after acquiring an additional 2,944,193 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in Applied Materials by 43.6% during 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 acquiring an additional 1,691,428 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in Applied Materials by 23.6% during the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,860,838 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $1,140,836,000 after acquiring an additional 1,502,995 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Applied Materials Trading Up 0.9%

AMAT opened at $230.73 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $183.81 billion, a PE ratio of 27.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.84. Applied Materials, Inc. has a one year low of $123.74 and a one year high of $242.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 1.76 and a current ratio of 2.50. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $209.71 and its 200 day moving average price is $186.02.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 14th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.12. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 40.96% and a net margin of 23.88%.The company had revenue of $7.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.21 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.12 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 9.38 EPS for the current year.

Applied Materials Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently issued reports on AMAT shares. DZ Bank lowered shares of Applied Materials from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $150.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Friday, August 15th. Daiwa America cut Applied Materials from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 20th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Applied Materials in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $256.00 target price on shares of Applied Materials in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Summit Insights lowered Applied Materials from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 15th. Eighteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $212.31.

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.