Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) Issues Q1 Earnings Guidance

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) issued an update on its first quarter earnings guidance on Thursday morning. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of $2.11-2.47 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.27. The company issued revenue guidance of $6.75-7.55 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $7.24 billion. Applied Materials also updated its Q1 2025 guidance to 2.110-2.470 EPS.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on AMAT shares. StockNews.com downgraded Applied Materials from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, September 14th. B. Riley lowered their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $300.00 to $280.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 16th. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $270.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Susquehanna dropped their price target on Applied Materials from $190.00 to $170.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $227.24.

Applied Materials Trading Up 1.8 %

AMAT stock traded up $3.21 during trading on Thursday, hitting $186.00. The company had a trading volume of 9,404,306 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,080,847. Applied Materials has a 52-week low of $141.94 and a 52-week high of $255.89. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $190.88 and a 200-day simple moving average of $207.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $153.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.54, a PEG ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 1.56. The company has a quick ratio of 2.09, a current ratio of 2.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 15th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $6.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.68 billion. Applied Materials had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 39.99%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.90 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Applied Materials will post 8.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Applied Materials Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.86%. Applied Materials’s payout ratio is currently 17.98%.

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.