Insider Selling: Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) CFO Sells $1,247,150.00 in Stock

Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) CFO Brice Hill sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $498.86, for a total transaction of $1,247,150.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 136,113 shares in the company, valued at $67,901,331.18. This represents a 1.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

Applied Materials Stock Performance

AMAT opened at $453.01 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $359.67 billion, a PE ratio of 42.54, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.67. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $408.94 and its 200 day moving average price is $343.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 2.51 and a quick ratio of 1.80. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 12-month low of $154.46 and a 12-month high of $510.75.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 14th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $7.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.68 billion. Applied Materials had a net margin of 29.31% and a return on equity of 36.97%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.39 earnings per share. Applied Materials has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 3.160-3.560 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 12.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Applied Materials Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.53 per share. This represents a $2.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. This is a positive change from Applied Materials’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.46. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 21st. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio is currently 19.91%.

Institutional Trading of Applied Materials

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 76,779,340 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $19,731,523,000 after acquiring an additional 330,197 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors increased its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 119.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 32,707,049 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $8,405,458,000 after acquiring an additional 17,829,377 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 40.1% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 12,520,114 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $2,563,376,000 after acquiring an additional 3,583,751 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 11,470,835 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $2,947,891,000 after acquiring an additional 373,012 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Materials in the 4th quarter worth about $2,858,543,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have weighed in on AMAT shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $400.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 15th. Erste Group Bank raised shares of Applied Materials from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Wolfe Research increased their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $500.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 15th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Applied Materials from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 23rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $390.00 to $520.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 15th. Twenty-seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $470.13.

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.