Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. Sells 379 Shares of Applied Materials, Inc. $AMAT

Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. decreased its stake in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 21.1% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,413 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after selling 379 shares during the period. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd.’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $259,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Applied Materials in the first quarter valued at approximately $1,085,600,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new stake in Applied Materials during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $882,396,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Applied Materials by 2,401.0% in the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Applied Materials by 43.6% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,573,673 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $808,853,000 after purchasing an additional 1,691,428 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in Applied Materials by 23.6% in the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,860,838 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,140,836,000 after purchasing an additional 1,502,995 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AMAT has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Applied Materials in a report on Friday, October 3rd. DZ Bank lowered Applied Materials from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $150.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Friday, August 15th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Applied Materials from $180.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Cfra Research raised Applied Materials to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 15th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $185.00 to $180.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 15th. Eighteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $210.96.

Applied Materials Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of AMAT opened at $233.10 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $185.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.82. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $198.20 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $181.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 2.50 and a quick ratio of 1.76. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 1 year low of $123.74 and a 1 year high of $242.50.

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

Applied Materials Dividend Announcement

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