World Investment Advisors LLC Grows Stock Position in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)

World Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 5,277.9% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 310,414 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 304,642 shares during the quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $62,719,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of AMAT. Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Applied Materials during the 2nd quarter worth about $26,000. Fairfield Financial Advisors LTD purchased a new position in shares of Applied Materials during the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Clean Yield Group bought a new position in shares of Applied Materials during the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. First PREMIER Bank raised its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 326.3% in the third quarter. First PREMIER Bank now owns 162 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 124 shares during the period. Finally, PSI Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 56.0% during the 2nd quarter. PSI Advisors LLC now owns 156 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Applied Materials Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:AMAT opened at $173.02 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $142.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.52. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $186.55 and its 200-day moving average price is $203.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 2.51 and a quick ratio of 1.87. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 1 year low of $144.57 and a 1 year high of $255.89.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 14th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.32 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.19 by $0.13. Applied Materials had a net margin of 26.41% and a return on equity of 39.26%. The business had revenue of $7.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.96 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.12 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 9.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Applied Materials Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 18.58%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their target price on Applied Materials from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $270.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $260.00 to $250.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Applied Materials from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Applied Materials has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $220.29.

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.