National Pension Service Increases Position in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)

National Pension Service boosted its stake in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 2.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,728,013 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 46,111 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service owned 0.21% of Applied Materials worth $280,059,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMAT. Global Wealth Management Investment Advisory Inc. increased its position in Applied Materials by 76.9% during the third quarter. Global Wealth Management Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 230 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. BluePath Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Applied Materials in the 3rd quarter valued at about $39,000. Tompkins Financial Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Materials during the fourth quarter worth about $49,000. Highlander Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Applied Materials by 60.0% in the fourth quarter. Highlander Capital Management LLC now owns 320 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after buying an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Finally, OFI Invest Asset Management purchased a new position in shares of Applied Materials during the third quarter valued at approximately $42,000. 80.56% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on AMAT. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $185.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. Bank Of America (Bofa) boosted their target price on Applied Materials from $170.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 18th. Raymond James lifted their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $180.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Susquehanna increased their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $138.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald raised Applied Materials from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $220.00 to $260.00 in a report on Monday, April 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $201.50.

Applied Materials Stock Performance

AMAT traded down $0.57 during trading on Thursday, reaching $206.79. 754,102 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,846,663. Applied Materials, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $113.91 and a fifty-two week high of $214.91. The company has a market capitalization of $171.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.40, a PEG ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 1.58. The company has a quick ratio of 1.91, a current ratio of 2.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $204.09 and a 200 day moving average price of $175.05.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.23. The firm had revenue of $6.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.48 billion. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 43.56% and a net margin of 27.03%. The business’s revenue was down .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.03 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 8.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This is an increase from Applied Materials’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.32. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 22nd. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.77%. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio is currently 18.82%.

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.