Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT – Get Rating) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, March 13th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Thursday, May 25th will be given a dividend of 0.32 per share by the manufacturing equipment provider on Thursday, June 15th. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.06%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 24th. This is an increase from Applied Materials’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26.
Applied Materials has increased its dividend by an average of 7.4% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 5 years. Applied Materials has a payout ratio of 15.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Applied Materials to earn $6.69 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.04 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 15.5%.
Applied Materials Stock Up 3.9 %
AMAT stock opened at $120.34 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $113.58 and a 200 day moving average price of $101.15. Applied Materials has a 12 month low of $71.12 and a 12 month high of $142.01. The company has a market cap of $101.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 2.31 and a quick ratio of 1.47.
Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 16th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $6.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.66 billion. Applied Materials had a net margin of 24.57% and a return on equity of 55.08%. Applied Materials’s revenue was up 7.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.89 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Applied Materials will post 7.01 earnings per share for the current year.
Insider Buying and Selling at Applied Materials
In other news, SVP Teri A. Little sold 6,813 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $800,118.72. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 98,332 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,548,110.08. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, Director Xun Chen sold 377 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $107.80, for a total transaction of $40,640.60. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 39,868 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,297,770.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Teri A. Little sold 6,813 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $800,118.72. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 98,332 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,548,110.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.25% of the stock is owned by insiders.
Institutional Trading of Applied Materials
A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AMAT. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Applied Materials during the 4th quarter worth approximately $930,505,000. Cowa LLC acquired a new stake in Applied Materials in the first quarter valued at approximately $76,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in Applied Materials by 79,147.5% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,726,422 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $557,639,000 after acquiring an additional 5,719,196 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its position in Applied Materials by 10.5% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 8,614,319 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $838,863,000 after acquiring an additional 819,979 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its position in Applied Materials by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,663,160 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $551,477,000 after acquiring an additional 503,665 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.22% of the company’s stock.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
Several equities analysts have issued reports on AMAT shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 17th. KGI Securities raised shares of Applied Materials from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 1st. Cowen upped their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $100.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 18th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $132.00 to $140.00 in a research note on Friday, February 17th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $135.00 price target on shares of Applied Materials in a research note on Wednesday, March 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and twenty-one have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Applied Materials currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $129.16.
About Applied Materials
Applied Materials, Inc provides manufacturing equipment, services and software to the semiconductor, display and related industries. It operates through the following segments: Semiconductor Systems, Applied Global Services, and Display & Adjacent Markets. The Semiconductor Systems segment includes semiconductor capital equipment for etch, rapid thermal processing, deposition, chemical mechanical planarization, metrology and inspection, wafer packaging, and ion implantation.
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