Bank of Montreal Can Has $280.73 Million Position in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)

Bank of Montreal Can lessened its stake in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 7.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,369,926 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after selling 109,243 shares during the quarter. Bank of Montreal Can owned 0.17% of Applied Materials worth $280,725,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Swedbank AB bought a new position in Applied Materials during the first quarter valued at approximately $773,611,000. Van ECK Associates Corp raised 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 valued at $1,327,707,000 after purchasing an additional 1,509,439 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 262.5% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,390,501 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $280,951,000 after purchasing an additional 1,006,937 shares during the last quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. bought a new stake in Applied Materials in the first quarter worth $162,873,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in Applied Materials by 18,449.2% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 643,102 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $1,299,390,000 after buying an additional 639,635 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AMAT has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Applied Materials from $270.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Applied Materials from $235.00 to $220.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 15th. StockNews.com downgraded Applied Materials from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, September 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $245.00 to $225.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 20th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $222.05.

Applied Materials Price Performance

Shares of Applied Materials stock opened at $174.55 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $143.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.56. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $189.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $205.49. Applied Materials, Inc. has a twelve month low of $144.57 and a twelve month high of $255.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a current ratio of 2.51.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 14th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.32 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.19 by $0.13. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 39.26% and a net margin of 26.41%. The company had revenue of $7.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.96 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.12 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 9.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Applied Materials Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.92%. 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.