Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) Shares Bought by Transcend Capital Advisors LLC

Transcend Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 91.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 4,614 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,198 shares during the quarter. Transcend Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $748,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Aldebaran Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Materials during the 4th quarter valued at about $211,000. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Applied Materials in the fourth quarter valued at $7,274,000. Sycomore Asset Management raised its stake in Applied Materials by 55.6% during the fourth quarter. Sycomore Asset Management now owns 33,107 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $5,437,000 after acquiring an additional 11,825 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC raised its stake in Applied Materials by 18.9% during the fourth quarter. CWM LLC now owns 37,821 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $6,130,000 after acquiring an additional 6,001 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GHP Investment Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 132.7% during the fourth quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 16,704 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $2,707,000 after purchasing an additional 9,527 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on AMAT. UBS Group raised their target price on Applied Materials from $185.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. B. Riley lifted their target price on Applied Materials from $175.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 12th. Bank Of America (Bofa) boosted their price target on Applied Materials from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Applied Materials from $175.00 to $230.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their target price on Applied Materials from $138.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $201.50.

Applied Materials Price Performance

Applied Materials stock opened at $203.38 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.91 and a current ratio of 2.71. The company has a market capitalization of $168.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 1.59. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $203.42 and its 200-day simple moving average is $171.98. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 1 year low of $109.15 and a 1 year high of $214.91.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.23. The business had revenue of $6.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.48 billion. Applied Materials had a net margin of 27.03% and a return on equity of 43.56%. The company’s revenue was down .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.03 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 8.04 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 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 23rd will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 22nd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.79%. This is an increase from Applied Materials’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio is presently 18.82%.

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.