Empirical Finance LLC Increases Position in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)

Empirical Finance LLC grew its holdings in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 29,350 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 552 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $5,930,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. JT Stratford LLC lifted its position in Applied Materials by 0.4% during the first quarter. JT Stratford LLC now owns 10,890 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $2,246,000 after buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. WASHINGTON TRUST Co boosted its stake in Applied Materials by 3.3% during the second quarter. WASHINGTON TRUST Co now owns 1,556 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $367,000 after buying an additional 49 shares during the period. Optimum Investment Advisors increased its holdings in Applied Materials by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. Optimum Investment Advisors now owns 4,016 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $948,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. SlateStone Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter. SlateStone Wealth LLC now owns 1,105 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $261,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Finally, Forum Financial Management LP increased its stake in Applied Materials by 0.6% during the third quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 9,143 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $1,847,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the period. 80.56% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on AMAT. Needham & Company LLC reduced their price objective on Applied Materials from $240.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $240.00 to $217.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 16th. StockNews.com lowered Applied Materials from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 14th. B. Riley reduced their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $300.00 to $280.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 16th. Finally, TD Cowen cut their price target on Applied Materials from $250.00 to $230.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $219.81.

Applied Materials Stock Performance

NASDAQ:AMAT opened at $169.18 on Friday. Applied Materials, Inc. has a twelve month low of $141.94 and a twelve month high of $255.89. The company has a market capitalization of $139.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.56. The company has a current ratio of 2.86, a quick ratio of 2.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $190.88 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $207.13.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 15th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.10. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 39.99% and a net margin of 27.74%. The business had revenue of $6.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.68 billion. The business’s revenue was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.90 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 8.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Applied Materials Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.95%. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 17.98%.

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.