Bank of New York Mellon Corp Boosts Position in Applied Materials, Inc. $AMAT

Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 3.9% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 8,264,566 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 312,875 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $1,692,087,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp grew its stake in Applied Materials by 1.0% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,920,984 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $7,125,265,000 after purchasing an additional 391,540 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,026,363 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $3,836,807,000 after buying an additional 407,282 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its position in shares of Applied Materials by 72.5% during the 2nd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 13,564,120 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $2,483,183,000 after buying an additional 5,700,349 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 13.7% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 8,936,363 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,635,992,000 after buying an additional 1,075,525 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Applied Materials in the second quarter valued at about $1,604,002,000. 80.56% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $300.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $290.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $220.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 14th. Craig Hallum reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $190.00 price objective on shares of Applied Materials in a research note on Friday, November 14th. Finally, KeyCorp increased their target price on Applied Materials from $285.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 16th. Twenty-three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $298.14.

Applied Materials Trading Up 4.1%

NASDAQ:AMAT opened at $332.71 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $263.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.33, a PEG ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.67. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 52 week low of $123.74 and a 52 week high of $336.47. The company has a quick ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 2.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $274.73 and a 200 day moving average of $224.57.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.11 by $0.06. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 39.26% and a net margin of 24.67%.The business had revenue of $6.80 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.68 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.32 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. Applied Materials has set its Q1 2026 guidance at 1.980-2.380 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 9.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Applied Materials Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 19th will be paid a $0.46 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 19th. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 21.20%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Adam Sanders sold 609 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $255.53, for a total value of $155,617.77. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 4,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,127,653.89. This trade represents a 12.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Teri A. Little sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $238.24, for a total transaction of $952,960.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 84,351 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,095,782.24. This represents a 4.53% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders sold 8,609 shares of company stock valued at $2,044,898. Corporate insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

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.