Capital Research & Management Co recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Technology company by 0.15% to 36.75 million shares with purchase of 55017.0 shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 4.39% valued currently at $4.86 billion. In addition, Capital Research & Management Co raised its holdings by 0.44 million to 21.32 million shares. And Geode Capital Management LLC has lifted its position by 8.49% or 1.44 million shares – to 18.43 million shares.
With over 18.91 million Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT) shares trading Friday and a closing price of $148.59 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $2.81 billion. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 17.05% and its price on 11/17/23 lost nearly -4.02%. Currently, there are 844.00M common shares owned by the public and among those 833.36M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 34 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for AMAT have a consensus price objective of $160.13. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $185.00 and a low of $120.00. The average price target is 7.21% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -23.83% over that period. But an upside of 19.68% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $160.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 47 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 27 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 619,720 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 20 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 356,188 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Applied Materials Inc. are Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, Vanguard 500 Index Fund, and Invesco QQQ Trust. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF owns 26.18 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $3.46 billion. The company bought an additional 0.12 million shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 3.13% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard 500 Index Fund bought 96455.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 20.28 million shares valued at over $2.68 billion and representing 2.42% of the shares outstanding. Invesco QQQ Trust sold 2598.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 14.43 million shares at a value of $1.91 billion. Invesco QQQ Trust now owns shares totaling to 1.73% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) opened at $142.04, down -$12.77 from a prior closing price of $154.81. However, the script later moved the day high at 149.05, down -4.02%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -1.39% and -0.12% over the past three months. AMAT shares are trading 52.59% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance up to 42.57% higher. It has a 12-month low price of $93.68 and touched a high of $157.76 over the same period. AMAT has an average intraday trading volume of 5.62 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 5.89%, 6.05%, and 12.57% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) shares accounts for 82.41% of the company’s 844.00M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 33.28%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 50.05% and 2.22% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $124.30B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.59. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 18.32, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $8.11. The company has a PEG of 1.47 and a Quick Ratio of 1.82 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.34. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 2.95% over the week and 2.51% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT) will achieve an EPS of $1.84 for the current quarter, $1.85 for the next quarter and $8.94 for 2025. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $1.46 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $1.98. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $2.03 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to decrease by -4.50%, and 14.26% over the next financial year. EPS should shrink at an annualized rate of 12.44% over the next five years, compared to 22.33% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 34 brokerage firm advisors rate Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT) as a “Strong Buy” at a consensus score of 1.94. Specifically, 17 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 10 of the 34 advise that investors “hold,” and 1 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the AMAT, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. TD Cowen stated their Outperform rating for the stock in a research note on November 17, 2023, with the firm’s price target at $160-$165.
