Evermay Wealth Management LLC Increases Position in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)

Evermay Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 2.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,141 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 101 shares during the quarter. Evermay Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $837,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in AMAT. JT Stratford LLC raised its holdings in Applied Materials by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. JT Stratford LLC now owns 10,890 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $2,246,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. WASHINGTON TRUST Co lifted its stake in Applied Materials by 3.3% during the 2nd quarter. WASHINGTON TRUST Co now owns 1,556 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $367,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares during the period. Optimum Investment Advisors grew its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 1.3% in the second quarter. Optimum Investment Advisors now owns 4,016 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $948,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the period. SlateStone Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 4.7% during the second quarter. SlateStone Wealth LLC now owns 1,105 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $261,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC grew its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 0.9% in the first quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 6,041 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $1,246,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Applied Materials from $275.00 to $270.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $260.00 to $230.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 16th. B. Riley lowered their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $300.00 to $280.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 16th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price 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. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on Applied Materials from $240.00 to $217.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $229.14.

Applied Materials Stock Performance

NASDAQ:AMAT traded down $2.75 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $187.37. 853,306 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,056,689. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $192.88 and a 200-day simple moving average of $208.08. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 52 week low of $129.21 and a 52 week high of $255.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $155.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.85, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.54. 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 released its earnings results on Thursday, August 15th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $6.78 billion during 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%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.90 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 8.49 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. 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 0.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio is 18.39%.

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.