Concord Wealth Partners Raises Holdings in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)

Concord Wealth Partners grew its position in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 10.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 12,414 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,144 shares during the quarter. Concord Wealth Partners’ holdings in Applied Materials were worth $2,019,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of AMAT. Concord Asset Management LLC VA grew its stake in Applied Materials by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. Concord Asset Management LLC VA now owns 12,072 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $1,963,000 after buying an additional 668 shares during the period. New Millennium Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 34,650.0% during the 4th quarter. New Millennium Group LLC now owns 5,560 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $904,000 after acquiring an additional 5,544 shares in the last quarter. Custom Index Systems LLC boosted its position in Applied Materials by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Custom Index Systems LLC now owns 2,100 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $342,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the period. Heck Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Applied Materials in the 4th quarter valued at $372,000. Finally, Caprock Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 19,844 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $3,227,000 after purchasing an additional 554 shares in the last quarter. 80.56% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on AMAT shares. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their target price on Applied Materials from $220.00 to $210.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 29th. KeyCorp upgraded shares of Applied Materials from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $225.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $270.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $230.00 to $202.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Evercore ISI cut their price target on Applied Materials from $260.00 to $250.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $218.71.

Applied Materials Price Performance

Shares of AMAT opened at $180.35 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 2.51 and a quick ratio of 1.87. The company has a market cap of $146.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.95, a PEG ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.53. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 12 month low of $158.96 and a 12 month high of $255.89. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $174.37 and a 200 day moving average price of $187.51.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 14th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.32 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.19 by $0.13. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 39.26% and a net margin of 26.41%. The company had revenue of $7.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.96 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.12 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 9.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Applied Materials Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.89%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 20th. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio is currently 18.58%.

Applied Materials 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.