Stanley Laman Group Ltd. Sells 693 Shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)

Stanley Laman Group Ltd. trimmed its stake in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 3.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 19,462 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after selling 693 shares during the quarter. Stanley Laman Group Ltd.’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $3,154,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Aldebaran Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Applied Materials during the 4th quarter valued at about $211,000. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Applied Materials during the 4th quarter valued at about $7,274,000. CWM LLC boosted its holdings in Applied Materials by 18.9% during the 4th quarter. CWM LLC now owns 37,821 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $6,130,000 after acquiring an additional 6,001 shares during the period. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Applied Materials by 132.7% in the 4th quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 16,704 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $2,707,000 after buying an additional 9,527 shares during the period. Finally, Gotham Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Applied Materials by 31.2% in the 3rd quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 164,751 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $22,810,000 after buying an additional 39,194 shares during the period. 80.56% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AMAT has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Applied Materials from $175.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Applied Materials from $142.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 12th. Bank Of America (Bofa) boosted their price objective on Applied Materials from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Applied Materials from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $220.00 to $260.00 in a report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, B. Riley increased their price target on Applied Materials from $175.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $201.50.

Applied Materials Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AMAT traded up $1.44 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $197.50. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,232,068 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,149,218. The company has a current ratio of 2.71, a quick ratio of 1.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $203.34 and a 200 day moving average price of $171.12. Applied Materials, Inc. has a one year low of $109.15 and a one year high of $214.91. The company has a market cap of $164.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 1.59.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.13 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.23. The company had revenue of $6.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.48 billion. Applied Materials had a net margin of 27.03% and a return on equity of 43.56%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.03 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 8.04 EPS for the current year.

Applied Materials Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 23rd will be given a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 22nd. This is a boost from Applied Materials’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 15.06%.

About Applied Materials

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.