Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. Has $357,000 Stock Position in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)

Roman Butler Fullerton & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 17.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,869 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 275 shares during the period. Roman Butler Fullerton & Co.’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $357,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of AMAT. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Applied Materials during the 1st quarter worth approximately $773,611,000. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 29.8% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 6,571,178 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $1,327,707,000 after buying an additional 1,509,439 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 126.4% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,254,952 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $464,974,000 after buying an additional 1,259,111 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its position in shares of Applied Materials by 262.5% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,390,501 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $280,951,000 after purchasing an additional 1,006,937 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Applied Materials by 1.2% during 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 purchasing an additional 891,446 shares during the period. 80.56% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. B. Riley lowered their target price on Applied Materials from $300.00 to $280.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Applied Materials from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Citigroup lowered their price target on Applied Materials from $240.00 to $217.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Susquehanna lowered their price target on Applied Materials from $215.00 to $190.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Applied Materials from $275.00 to $270.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy 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 $229.14.

Applied Materials Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AMAT opened at $183.38 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $151.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.60, a P/E/G ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.56. 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, Inc. has a 1-year low of $136.67 and a 1-year high of $255.89. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $191.65 and its 200 day moving average is $207.63.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 15th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $6.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 for the quarter was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.90 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 8.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Applied Materials Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.87%. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 17.98%.

Applied Materials Profile

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.