MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB Has $2.89 Million Stake in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)

MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB reduced its stake in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 21.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 17,770 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after selling 4,883 shares during the quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $2,890,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. increased its stake in Applied Materials by 341.0% in the third quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 2,857,155 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $577,288,000 after purchasing an additional 2,209,218 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 67.8% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 4,663,133 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $942,187,000 after buying an additional 1,884,153 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in shares of Applied Materials by 29.8% in 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 buying an additional 1,509,439 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in Applied Materials by 262.5% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,390,501 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $280,951,000 after buying an additional 1,006,937 shares during the period. Finally, Alkeon Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Applied Materials by 87.7% during the third quarter. Alkeon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,877,133 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $379,275,000 after acquiring an additional 877,133 shares in the last quarter. 80.56% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AMAT has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Susquehanna dropped their price target on Applied Materials from $190.00 to $170.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Stifel Nicolaus cut 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. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $220.00 to $210.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 29th. Bank of America dropped their price target on Applied Materials from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Finally, KeyCorp raised Applied Materials from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $225.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday. One investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $218.95.

Applied Materials Trading Up 3.0 %

Shares of AMAT stock opened at $192.05 on Tuesday. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 12-month low of $156.78 and a 12-month high of $255.89. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $173.10 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $190.58. The company has a quick ratio of 1.87, a current ratio of 2.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The company has a market capitalization of $156.27 billion, a PE ratio of 22.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.53.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 14th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.19 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $7.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.96 billion. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 39.26% and a net margin of 26.41%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.12 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 9.37 earnings per share for the current year.

Applied Materials Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio is 18.58%.

Applied Materials Company Profile

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.