EFG Asset Management North America Corp. Lowers Stock Position in Applied Materials, Inc. $AMAT

EFG Asset Management North America Corp. lessened its position in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 22.8% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 25,193 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after selling 7,443 shares during the period. EFG Asset Management North America Corp.’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $5,158,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Applied Materials by 1.0% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,920,984 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $7,125,265,000 after acquiring an additional 391,540 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Applied Materials by 2.0% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,026,363 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $3,836,807,000 after purchasing an additional 407,282 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its holdings in Applied Materials by 72.5% in the second quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 13,564,120 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,483,183,000 after purchasing an additional 5,700,349 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of Applied Materials by 13.7% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 8,936,363 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,635,992,000 after buying an additional 1,075,525 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Applied Materials during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,604,002,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Applied Materials

In other news, SVP Teri A. Little sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.24, for a total transaction of $952,960.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 84,351 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,095,782.24. The trade was a 4.53% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Adam Sanders sold 609 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.53, for a total transaction of $155,617.77. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 4,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,127,653.89. This represents a 12.13% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 8,609 shares of company stock worth $2,044,898. Insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $300.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $290.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated a “market perform” rating and set a $325.00 price target on shares of Applied Materials in a research report on Monday, January 12th. B. Riley reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Applied Materials in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $273.00 target price on shares of Applied Materials in a report on Tuesday, December 2nd. Twenty-three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $294.75.

Applied Materials Stock Down 0.9%

AMAT stock opened at $319.46 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.61, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $272.58 and a two-hundred day moving average of $223.62. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 12 month low of $123.74 and a 12 month high of $333.03. The company has a market cap of $253.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.80, a PEG ratio of 3.34 and a beta of 1.67.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 13th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.11 by $0.06. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 39.26% and a net margin of 24.67%.The business had revenue of $6.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.68 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.32 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Applied Materials has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 1.980-2.380 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 9.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Applied Materials Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 19th will be paid a $0.46 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 19th. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 21.20%.

About Applied Materials

Applied Materials, Inc is a U.S.-based supplier of equipment, services and software used to manufacture semiconductor chips, flat panel displays and other advanced materials. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, the company designs and sells capital equipment and related technologies that enable production of integrated circuits, display panels and materials used across the electronics supply chain.

Applied Materials’ offerings include process equipment and factory software that support critical steps in device fabrication, such as deposition, etch, implantation, inspection and metrology, as well as systems for packaging and advanced heterogeneous integration.