Institute for Wealth Management LLC. Decreases Stock Holdings in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)

Institute for Wealth Management LLC. decreased its holdings in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 0.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 20,323 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after selling 65 shares during the period. Institute for Wealth Management LLC.’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $3,294,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Materials in the fourth quarter valued at $7,274,000. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Applied Materials by 132.7% in the 4th quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 16,704 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $2,707,000 after buying an additional 9,527 shares during the period. Gotham Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Applied Materials by 31.2% in the 3rd quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 164,751 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $22,810,000 after buying an additional 39,194 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System increased its stake in Applied Materials by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 2,161,556 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $299,267,000 after buying an additional 6,466 shares during the period. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in Applied Materials by 9.1% in the 3rd quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 830,038 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $114,919,000 after buying an additional 69,388 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Applied Materials Stock Performance

AMAT stock traded down $4.45 during trading on Friday, reaching $189.87. The company had a trading volume of 3,717,574 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,163,679. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $202.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $169.24. The company has a market cap of $157.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 1.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.91 and a current ratio of 2.71. Applied Materials, Inc. has a twelve month low of $109.15 and a twelve month high of $214.91.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.13 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.23. Applied Materials had a net margin of 27.03% and a return on equity of 43.56%. The company had revenue of $6.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.48 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.03 EPS. Applied Materials’s revenue for the quarter was down .4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 8.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Applied Materials Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 is Wednesday, May 22nd. This is a positive change from Applied Materials’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.84%. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 15.06%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AMAT has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. B. Riley raised their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $175.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 12th. Raymond James increased their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $180.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $170.00 to $211.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $185.00 to $245.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $185.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Applied Materials has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $201.50.

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.