AE Wealth Management LLC Has $3.97 Million Stock Position in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)

Posted by Defense World Staff on Apr 18th, 2023

AE Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT – Get Rating) by 39.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 40,777 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 11,559 shares during the quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $3,971,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. S. R. Schill & Associates acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Materials during the 4th quarter worth $263,000. Balentine LLC lifted its position in shares of Applied Materials by 6.3% during the 4th quarter. Balentine LLC now owns 13,916 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $1,355,000 after buying an additional 825 shares during the last quarter. Welch & Forbes LLC lifted its position in shares of Applied Materials by 14.6% during the 3rd quarter. Welch & Forbes LLC now owns 6,439 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $528,000 after buying an additional 821 shares during the last quarter. Graypoint LLC lifted its position in shares of Applied Materials by 22.8% during the 4th quarter. Graypoint LLC now owns 3,626 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $353,000 after buying an additional 673 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wipfli Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Applied Materials during the 3rd quarter worth $826,000. 75.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Applied Materials from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 17th. B. Riley upped their price objective on Applied Materials from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 17th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on Applied Materials from $132.00 to $140.00 in a research report on Friday, February 17th. Barclays downgraded Applied Materials from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $80.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Monday, January 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Applied Materials from $88.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and twenty-one have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Applied Materials has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $129.31.

Applied Materials Trading Down 1.0 %

NASDAQ AMAT opened at $111.79 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $117.33 and a 200 day simple moving average of $105.77. Applied Materials, Inc. has a one year low of $71.12 and a one year high of $125.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $94.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 1.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 2.31 and a quick ratio of 1.47.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 16th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.03 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.10. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 55.08% and a net margin of 24.57%. The business had revenue of $6.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.66 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.89 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 7.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Applied Materials Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 25th will be paid a $0.32 dividend. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.15%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 24th. This is a boost from Applied Materials’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.94%.

Applied Materials declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Monday, March 13th that authorizes the company to buyback $10.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the manufacturing equipment provider to reacquire up to 9.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Applied Materials

In other Applied Materials news, Director Xun Chen sold 377 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.80, for a total value of $40,640.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 39,868 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,297,770.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, Director Xun Chen sold 377 shares of Applied Materials stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.80, for a total transaction of $40,640.60. Following the transaction, the director now owns 39,868 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,297,770.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Omkaram Nalamasu sold 29,444 shares of Applied Materials stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.70, for a total value of $3,671,666.80. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 194,298 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,228,960.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 36,634 shares of company stock valued at $4,512,426. Company insiders own 0.25% of the company’s stock.

About Applied Materials

(Get Rating)

Applied Materials, Inc provides manufacturing equipment, services and software to the semiconductor, display and related industries. It operates through the following segments: Semiconductor Systems, Applied Global Services, and Display & Adjacent Markets. The Semiconductor Systems segment includes semiconductor capital equipment for etch, rapid thermal processing, deposition, chemical mechanical planarization, metrology and inspection, wafer packaging, and ion implantation.