Wealthspire Advisors LLC Acquires 628 Shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)

Wealthspire Advisors LLC raised its stake in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 7.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 9,423 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 628 shares during the period. Wealthspire Advisors LLC’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $1,527,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 10,032,850 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $1,389,048,000 after acquiring an additional 456,865 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its stake in Applied Materials by 6.0% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,995,287 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,383,848,000 after purchasing an additional 570,080 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Applied Materials by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 5,017,147 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $813,129,000 after purchasing an additional 130,238 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 4.9% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 4,968,838 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $687,936,000 after buying an additional 230,789 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,494,928 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $728,493,000 after buying an additional 66,923 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on AMAT. Citigroup lifted their price target on Applied Materials from $170.00 to $211.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Applied Materials from $142.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 12th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $185.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $185.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $185.00 to $245.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $201.50.

Applied Materials Stock Performance

AMAT traded down $1.03 on Thursday, hitting $206.33. 2,758,180 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,869,017. The firm has a market cap of $171.44 billion, a PE ratio of 24.27, a P/E/G ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 1.58. Applied Materials, Inc. has a twelve month low of $113.91 and a twelve month high of $214.91. 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 stock has a fifty day moving average of $204.29 and a two-hundred day moving average of $175.28.

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

Applied Materials Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 23rd will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 22nd. This is an increase from Applied Materials’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.78%. Applied Materials’s payout ratio is currently 18.82%.

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.