Insider Selling: Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) Director Sells 377 Shares of Stock

Posted by John. R. Edwardson on Jan 25th, 2023

Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT – Get Rating) Director Xun Chen sold 377 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.80, for a total transaction of $40,640.60. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 39,868 shares in the company, valued at $4,297,770.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link.

Xun Chen also recently made the following trade(s):

On Saturday, January 14th, Xun Chen purchased 56 shares of Applied Materials stock. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $161.44 per share, for a total transaction of $9,040.64.

Applied Materials Trading Down 1.0 %

Applied Materials stock traded down $1.17 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $112.99. 3,459,512 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,543,379. Applied Materials, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $71.12 and a fifty-two week high of $145.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $95.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.19, a PEG ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.56. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $105.04 and its 200 day simple moving average is $97.77. The company has a current ratio of 2.16, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 17th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.72 by $0.31. Applied Materials had a net margin of 25.31% and a return on equity of 56.62%. The firm had revenue of $6.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.44 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.94 earnings per share. Applied Materials’s revenue was up 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 6.74 EPS for the current year.

Applied Materials Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 16th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 23rd will be given a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.92%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 22nd. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.98%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Applied Materials

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. YHB Investment Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Applied Materials by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. YHB Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 3,053 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $297,000 after acquiring an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. Pflug Koory LLC increased its position in shares of Applied Materials by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Pflug Koory LLC now owns 27,251 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,654,000 after acquiring an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. Boston Financial Mangement LLC increased its position in shares of Applied Materials by 2.0% during the second quarter. Boston Financial Mangement LLC now owns 4,934 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $449,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Guyasuta Investment Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Applied Materials by 3.1% during the second quarter. Guyasuta Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 3,293 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $300,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Godsey & Gibb Inc. increased its position in shares of Applied Materials by 8.3% during the fourth quarter. Godsey & Gibb Inc. now owns 1,300 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $127,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. 75.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on AMAT shares. TheStreet raised shares of Applied Materials from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 23rd. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $98.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 30th. Loop Capital initiated coverage on shares of Applied Materials in a report on Tuesday, December 6th. They set a “buy” rating and a $125.00 price objective on the stock. Susquehanna Bancshares increased their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $80.00 to $92.00 in a report on Friday, November 18th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on shares of Applied Materials to $130.00 in a report on Monday, November 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Applied Materials currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $117.64.

About Applied Materials

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Applied Materials, Inc provides manufacturing equipment, services and software to the semiconductor, display and related industries. It operates through the following segments: Semiconductor Systems, Applied Global Services, and Display & Adjacent Markets. The Semiconductor Systems segment includes semiconductor capital equipment for etch, rapid thermal processing, deposition, chemical mechanical planarization, metrology and inspection, wafer packaging, and ion implantation.