LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. Sells 827 Shares of Applied Materials, Inc. $AMAT

LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. lessened its position in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 5.5% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 14,215 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after selling 827 shares during the period. LGT Fund Management Co Ltd.’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $2,602,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of AMAT. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Applied Materials during the first quarter worth $1,085,600,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC acquired a new stake in Applied Materials in the second quarter worth $882,396,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Applied Materials by 2,401.0% in the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,066,817 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $445,056,000 after purchasing an additional 2,944,193 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Applied Materials by 43.6% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,573,673 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $808,853,000 after purchasing an additional 1,691,428 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its holdings in Applied Materials by 23.6% in the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,860,838 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $1,140,836,000 after purchasing an additional 1,502,995 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Rothschild & Co Redburn cut shares of Applied Materials from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $200.00 price target for the company. in a report on Monday, July 7th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Applied Materials in a report on Saturday, September 27th. TD Cowen reduced their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 15th. Finally, Bank of America reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $180.00 price objective (down from $190.00) on shares of Applied Materials in a report on Friday, August 15th. Seventeen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Applied Materials presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $195.12.

Applied Materials Stock Down 2.7%

Applied Materials stock opened at $217.53 on Friday. Applied Materials, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $123.74 and a fifty-two week high of $226.41. The stock has a market cap of $173.29 billion, a PE ratio of 25.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.82. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $179.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is $169.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 1.76 and a current ratio of 2.50.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 14th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.48 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.12. Applied Materials had a net margin of 23.88% and a return on equity of 40.96%. The business had revenue of $7.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.21 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.12 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Applied Materials has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 1.910-2.310 EPS. Research analysts predict that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 9.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Applied Materials Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.46 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 20th. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Applied Materials’s payout ratio is 21.93%.

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.