Capital Investment Advisors LLC Increases Stake in Applied Materials, Inc. $AMAT

Capital Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 9.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 47,758 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,182 shares during the quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $9,778,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sunflower Bank N.A. boosted its position in Applied Materials by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Sunflower Bank N.A. now owns 3,287 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $673,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the period. Welch Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 3.0% during the third quarter. Welch Group LLC now owns 1,741 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $356,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Shelton Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 1.5% during the second quarter. Shelton Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,398 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $622,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the period. Octavia Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 0.8% in the second quarter. Octavia Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,200 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $1,135,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Everpar Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Applied Materials by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Everpar Advisors LLC now owns 3,359 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $688,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Applied Materials from $255.00 to $290.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 15th. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $290.00 price target on shares of Applied Materials in a research note on Friday, November 14th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $240.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $260.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 15th. Finally, DZ Bank raised shares of Applied Materials from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 14th. Twenty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $246.78.

Insider Activity at Applied Materials

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

Applied Materials Stock Performance

Shares of Applied Materials stock opened at $281.64 on Friday. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 12 month low of $123.74 and a 12 month high of $298.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $223.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.45, a P/E/G ratio of 3.02 and a beta of 1.67. 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 business has a fifty day simple moving average of $252.29 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $212.37.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 13th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.11 by $0.06. Applied Materials had a net margin of 24.67% and a return on equity of 39.26%. The company had revenue of $6.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.68 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.32 EPS. Applied Materials’s quarterly 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. On average, equities 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 announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.46 per share. This represents a $1.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 19th. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.