Darwin Wealth Management LLC Invests $375,000 in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)

Darwin Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 1,856 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $375,000.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of AMAT. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in Applied Materials by 29.8% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 6,571,178 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,327,707,000 after acquiring an additional 1,509,439 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Applied Materials by 10.4% in the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,189,202 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,070,167,000 after acquiring an additional 490,597 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in shares of Applied Materials by 1.6% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 5,084,186 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,199,817,000 after acquiring an additional 81,151 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB raised its stake in Applied Materials by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 4,244,566 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $857,615,000 after purchasing an additional 108,827 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in Applied Materials by 1.6% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,839,715 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $906,134,000 after acquiring an additional 59,910 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on AMAT. B. Riley reduced their target price on Applied Materials from $300.00 to $280.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $240.00 to $217.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 16th. TD Cowen decreased their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $250.00 to $230.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 15th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Applied Materials from $185.00 to $179.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Applied Materials from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, September 14th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Applied Materials has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $219.81.

Applied Materials Stock Performance

AMAT stock opened at $168.81 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $190.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $206.44. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 12-month low of $144.57 and a 12-month high of $255.89. The firm has a market cap of $139.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.66, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.56. The company has a current ratio of 2.51, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 14th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.32 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.19 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $7.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.96 billion. Applied Materials had a net margin of 26.41% and a return on equity of 39.26%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.12 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 9.52 EPS for the current year.

Applied Materials Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.95%. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 18.58%.

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.