Applied Materials, Inc. (AMAT) to Distribute Quarterly Dividend of $0.40 on March 13th

Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, December 13th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be given a dividend of 0.40 per share by the manufacturing equipment provider on Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.94%.

Applied Materials has raised its dividend payment by an average of 11.9% annually over the last three years. Applied Materials has a payout ratio of 16.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Applied Materials to earn $10.47 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 15.3%.

Applied Materials Price Performance

Shares of AMAT opened at $169.35 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.51, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $182.86 and its 200 day simple moving average is $201.42. Applied Materials has a 1-year low of $148.05 and a 1-year high of $255.89. The company has a market cap of $139.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.67, a PEG ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.52.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 14th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.32 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.19 by $0.13. Applied Materials had a net margin of 26.41% and a return on equity of 39.26%. The company had revenue of $7.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.96 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.12 EPS. Applied Materials’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Applied Materials will post 9.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on AMAT shares. UBS Group cut their price objective on Applied Materials from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on Applied Materials from $270.00 to $250.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $250.00 to $230.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 15th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $240.00 to $217.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $260.00 to $250.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target 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.