Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) Price Target Raised to $202.00

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) had its price target lifted by investment analysts at Citigroup from $194.00 to $202.00 in a research note issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock. Citigroup’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 17.44% from the company’s previous close.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their target price on Applied Materials from $220.00 to $210.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 29th. KeyCorp upgraded Applied Materials from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $225.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Mizuho reduced their price target on Applied Materials from $220.00 to $210.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on Applied Materials from $260.00 to $250.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on Applied Materials from $200.00 to $190.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Applied Materials has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $215.38.

Applied Materials Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of AMAT stock traded up $2.80 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $172.00. The company had a trading volume of 10,313,307 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,620,562. Applied Materials has a 12 month low of $158.96 and a 12 month high of $255.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 2.51 and a quick ratio of 1.87. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $175.31 and a 200-day simple moving average of $184.12. The company has a market cap of $139.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.53.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.38 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.28 by $0.10. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 39.26% and a net margin of 26.41%. On average, research analysts expect that Applied Materials will post 9.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Applied Materials by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 77,039,667 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $12,528,961,000 after acquiring an additional 487,358 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Applied Materials by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,808,047 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $7,841,178,000 after acquiring an additional 672,548 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Applied Materials by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,079,451 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $3,260,178,000 after acquiring an additional 253,078 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Applied Materials by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 16,413,112 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $3,316,269,000 after acquiring an additional 858,122 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in Applied Materials by 18.6% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 10,230,464 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $1,663,780,000 after acquiring an additional 1,602,645 shares in the last quarter. 80.56% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.