Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC Has $15.51 Million Position in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)

Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 31.1% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 76,784 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 18,228 shares during the period. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $15,514,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 29.8% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 6,571,178 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $1,327,707,000 after acquiring an additional 1,509,439 shares during the last quarter. WoodTrust Financial Corp increased its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 47.0% in the third quarter. WoodTrust Financial Corp now owns 67,915 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $13,722,000 after acquiring an additional 21,699 shares during the last quarter. Stiles Financial Services Inc increased its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 252.0% in the third quarter. Stiles Financial Services Inc now owns 4,734 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $957,000 after acquiring an additional 3,389 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 89.3% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 8,988 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $2,121,000 after acquiring an additional 4,239 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sivia Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Applied Materials by 5.7% in the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,338 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $552,000 after purchasing an additional 126 shares in the last quarter. 80.56% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on AMAT. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $260.00 to $230.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Applied Materials from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on Applied Materials from $260.00 to $235.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Applied Materials from $224.00 to $185.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Applied Materials from $275.00 to $270.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 16th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $228.19.

Applied Materials Price Performance

Shares of Applied Materials stock traded up $0.67 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $189.23. The company had a trading volume of 449,566 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,031,047. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $190.81 and a 200 day simple moving average of $207.42. The company has a current ratio of 2.86, a quick ratio of 2.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 1-year low of $141.94 and a 1-year high of $255.89. The company has a market capitalization of $156.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 1.56.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 15th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.02 by $0.10. Applied Materials had a net margin of 27.74% and a return on equity of 39.99%. The firm had revenue of $6.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.68 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.90 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 8.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Applied Materials Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be issued a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 17.98%.

Applied Materials 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.