Symphony Financial Ltd. Co. Has $498,000 Stock Position in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)

Symphony Financial Ltd. Co. decreased its position in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 6.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,436 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after selling 171 shares during the period. Symphony Financial Ltd. Co.’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $498,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AMAT. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Applied Materials by 1.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 75,008,622 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $15,469,028,000 after buying an additional 891,446 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Applied Materials by 10.4% in the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,189,202 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $1,070,167,000 after buying an additional 490,597 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in shares of Applied Materials by 1.6% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 5,084,186 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $1,199,817,000 after buying an additional 81,151 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of Applied Materials by 9.5% in the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 5,061,739 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $1,194,520,000 after buying an additional 438,691 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB lifted its position in shares of Applied Materials by 2.6% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 4,244,566 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $857,615,000 after buying an additional 108,827 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on AMAT shares. Dbs Bank lowered Applied Materials from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. StockNews.com lowered Applied Materials from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 14th. Needham & Company LLC reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $260.00 price objective on shares of Applied Materials in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price objective on Applied Materials from $260.00 to $230.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Applied Materials from $224.00 to $185.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Applied Materials has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $229.14.

Applied Materials Trading Down 0.8 %

AMAT stock opened at $183.00 on Wednesday. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 1-year low of $129.21 and a 1-year high of $255.89. The firm has a market cap of $151.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.03, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.54. The business’s 50 day moving average is $195.09 and its 200-day moving average is $208.93. The company has a current ratio of 2.86, a quick ratio of 2.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 15th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $6.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.68 billion. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 39.99% and a net margin of 27.74%. Applied Materials’s revenue was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.90 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 8.49 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, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.87%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. Applied Materials’s payout ratio is currently 18.39%.

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.