Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its holdings in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT – Get Rating) by 8.2% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 245,270 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider's stock after acquiring an additional 18,632 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC's holdings in Applied Materials were worth $22,314,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Capital Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,055 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider's stock valued at $930,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Welch & Forbes LLC increased its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Welch & Forbes LLC now owns 5,618 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider's stock valued at $741,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Syverson Strege & Co increased its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 32.1% in the 1st quarter. Syverson Strege & Co now owns 387 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider's stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 94 shares during the last quarter. Grove Bank & Trust increased its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 5,204 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider's stock valued at $686,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mader & Shannon Wealth Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Mader & Shannon Wealth Management Inc. now owns 18,122 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider's stock valued at $2,388,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.99% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Applied Materials

In other news, SVP Teri A. Little sold 15,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.30, for a total value of $1,294,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 93,169 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,040,484.70. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.37% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Applied Materials Stock Performance

Shares of AMAT stock opened at $81.93 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $97.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $105.88. The stock has a market cap of $70.49 billion, a PE ratio of 10.95, a P/E/G ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.53. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 1 year low of $81.53 and a 1 year high of $167.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a current ratio of 2.26.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 18th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $1.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $6.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $6.27 billion. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 56.68% and a net margin of 26.42%. Applied Materials's revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.90 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 7.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Applied Materials Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 15th. Investors of record on Friday, November 25th will be issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 23rd. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.27%. Applied Materials's dividend payout ratio is presently 13.90%.

About Applied Materials

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Applied Materials, Inc provides manufacturing equipment, services, and software to the semiconductor, display, and related industries. It 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.

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