William Allan Corp Sells 4,062 Shares of Applied Materials, Inc. $AMAT

William Allan Corp trimmed its stake in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 7.4% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 51,166 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after selling 4,062 shares during the quarter. Applied Materials makes up about 5.9% of William Allan Corp’s portfolio, making the stock its biggest position. William Allan Corp’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $10,476,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AMAT. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Applied Materials by 1.0% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,920,984 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $7,125,265,000 after buying an additional 391,540 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 2.0% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 21,026,363 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,836,807,000 after acquiring an additional 407,282 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 72.5% during the second quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 13,564,120 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,483,183,000 after acquiring an additional 5,700,349 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of Applied Materials by 13.7% in the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 8,936,363 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,635,992,000 after acquiring an additional 1,075,525 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Applied Materials in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,604,002,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on AMAT. Bank of America raised shares of Applied Materials from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $180.00 to $250.00 in a research note on Monday, October 13th. DZ Bank upgraded Applied Materials from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 14th. B. Riley increased their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 18th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $350.00 price objective on shares of Applied Materials in a research report on Tuesday, December 16th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Applied Materials from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Twenty-one research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and thirteen have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $250.11.

Insider Activity at Applied Materials

In other news, SVP Teri A. Little sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $238.24, for a total value of $952,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 84,351 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,095,782.24. The trade was a 4.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Adam Sanders sold 609 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $255.53, for a total transaction of $155,617.77. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 4,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,127,653.89. This represents a 12.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 8,609 shares of company stock valued at $2,044,898. Corporate insiders own 0.24% of the company’s stock.

Applied Materials Stock Up 6.9%

Applied Materials stock opened at $301.18 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.61, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 1-year low of $123.74 and a 1-year high of $302.78. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $253.65 and its 200-day simple moving average is $213.27. The company has a market capitalization of $238.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.70, a P/E/G ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 1.67.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 13th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.17 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.11 by $0.06. Applied Materials had a net margin of 24.67% and a return on equity of 39.26%. The firm 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 business 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. Sell-side analysts forecast that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 9.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Applied Materials Announces Dividend

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

Applied Materials Profile

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.