Whittier Trust Co. Sells 12,083 Shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)

Whittier Trust Co. lowered its stake in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 3.2% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 360,449 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after selling 12,083 shares during the quarter. Applied Materials comprises approximately 1.0% of Whittier Trust Co.’s holdings, making the stock its 19th largest holding. Whittier Trust Co.’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $72,828,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JT Stratford LLC lifted its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 0.4% in the first quarter. JT Stratford LLC now owns 10,890 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $2,246,000 after buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Financial Management Professionals Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 5.6% in the first quarter. Financial Management Professionals Inc. now owns 924 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $191,000 after buying an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. WASHINGTON TRUST Co lifted its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 3.3% in the second quarter. WASHINGTON TRUST Co now owns 1,556 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $367,000 after buying an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Optimum Investment Advisors lifted its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 1.3% in the second quarter. Optimum Investment Advisors now owns 4,016 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $948,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SlateStone Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 4.7% in the second quarter. SlateStone Wealth LLC now owns 1,105 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $261,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on AMAT. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $260.00 to $230.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Dbs Bank cut shares of Applied Materials from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $260.00 target price on shares of Applied Materials in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $275.00 to $270.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $229.14.

Applied Materials Stock Performance

Shares of AMAT traded down $2.21 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $184.15. The stock had a trading volume of 2,829,271 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,084,578. The firm has a market capitalization of $152.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.29, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.54. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $195.61 and a 200 day moving average price of $209.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 2.09 and a current ratio of 2.86. Applied Materials, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $129.21 and a fifty-two week high of $255.89.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 15th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 prior year, the firm posted $1.90 earnings per share. Applied Materials’s quarterly revenue was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 8.49 EPS for the current year.

Applied Materials Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 21st will be paid a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 21st. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.87%. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio is currently 18.39%.

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.