Westpac Banking Corp Has $1.77 Million Stock Holdings in Applied Materials, Inc. $AMAT

Westpac Banking Corp lowered its position in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 82.6% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,670 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after selling 45,974 shares during the quarter. Westpac Banking Corp’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $1,770,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Applied Materials by 2.0% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,026,363 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $3,836,807,000 after acquiring an additional 407,282 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in Applied Materials by 3.8% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 7,951,691 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,455,716,000 after purchasing an additional 291,358 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 23.6% in 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 in the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Applied Materials in the 2nd quarter valued at $1,409,320,000. Finally, Amundi lifted its position in shares of Applied Materials by 15.8% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 7,656,034 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $1,038,504,000 after buying an additional 1,046,635 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Applied Materials Price Performance

Shares of Applied Materials stock traded up $3.88 on Monday, hitting $229.89. 448,160 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 7,615,606. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 12-month low of $123.74 and a 12-month high of $242.50. The company has a current ratio of 2.50, a quick ratio of 1.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The company has a market cap of $183.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.84. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $212.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $187.32.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 13th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.17 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.11 by $0.06. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 40.96% and a net margin of 23.88%.The business had revenue of $6.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.68 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.32 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. Applied Materials has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 1.980-2.380 EPS. Analysts expect that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 9.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Applied Materials Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be given a dividend of $0.46 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio is presently 21.20%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AMAT has been the topic of a number of research reports. DZ Bank cut 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 note on Friday, August 15th. KeyCorp increased their target price on Applied Materials from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 10th. Daiwa Capital Markets reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $170.00 price target (down from $185.00) on shares of Applied Materials in a research note on Wednesday, August 20th. Barclays upped their price objective on Applied Materials from $170.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Finally, UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $250.00 target price on shares of Applied Materials in a report on Friday. Nineteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $226.74.

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.