Park Edge Advisors LLC Buys 99 Shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)

Park Edge Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,364 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 99 shares during the period. Park Edge Advisors LLC’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $680,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Applied Materials by 89.3% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 8,988 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $2,121,000 after purchasing an additional 4,239 shares in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Applied Materials by 5.7% during the 2nd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,338 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $552,000 after buying an additional 126 shares during the period. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. boosted its stake in Applied Materials by 17.3% in the 1st quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 23,949 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $4,939,000 after buying an additional 3,529 shares in the last quarter. L & S Advisors Inc bought a new stake in Applied Materials in the second quarter valued at $3,069,000. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its position in Applied Materials by 218.9% in the first quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 825,308 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $170,182,000 after acquiring an additional 566,516 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Applied Materials Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of Applied Materials stock traded up $2.77 on Friday, hitting $186.52. 4,794,657 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,091,412. Applied Materials, Inc. has a one year low of $129.21 and a one year high of $255.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 2.86 and a quick ratio of 2.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $154.43 billion, a PE ratio of 21.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.54. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $193.72 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $208.41.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 15th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.02 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $6.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.68 billion. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 39.99% and a net margin of 27.74%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.90 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 8.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Applied Materials Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.86%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 21st. Applied Materials’s payout ratio is presently 18.39%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on AMAT. 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 research note on Thursday, September 12th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $275.00 to $270.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $260.00 to $230.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Applied Materials in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, Mizuho cut their price objective on Applied Materials from $245.00 to $225.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 20th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $229.14.

Applied Materials Company 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.