J. W. Coons Advisors LLC Has $921,000 Stock Position in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)

J. W. Coons Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,560 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 95 shares during the quarter. J. W. Coons Advisors LLC’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $921,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AMAT. JT Stratford LLC lifted its position in shares of Applied Materials by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. JT Stratford LLC now owns 10,890 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $2,246,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the period. WASHINGTON TRUST Co grew its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 3.3% during the second quarter. WASHINGTON TRUST Co now owns 1,556 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $367,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Optimum Investment Advisors grew its holdings in Applied Materials by 1.3% during the 2nd 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 last quarter. SlateStone Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 4.7% in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Forum Financial Management LP increased its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 9,143 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,847,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on AMAT shares. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $240.00 to $217.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Applied Materials from $185.00 to $179.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Applied Materials from $270.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price target on Applied Materials from $240.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Finally, Dbs Bank cut shares of Applied Materials from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $219.81.

Applied Materials Trading Down 9.2 %

NASDAQ:AMAT opened at $168.88 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $139.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.56. Applied Materials, Inc. has a twelve month low of $141.94 and a twelve month high of $255.89. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $190.88 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $206.87. 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 quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 14th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.32 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.19 by $0.13. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 39.71% and a net margin of 26.41%. The firm had revenue of $7.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.96 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.12 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 9.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Applied Materials Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. Applied Materials’s payout ratio is presently 18.58%.

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.