Manning & Napier Advisors LLC Buys 528,398 Shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)

Manning & Napier Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 535.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 627,125 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after buying an additional 528,398 shares during the quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $101,989,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in AMAT. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 341.0% during the third quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 2,857,155 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $577,288,000 after buying an additional 2,209,218 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 67.8% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 4,663,133 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $942,187,000 after buying an additional 1,884,153 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 29.8% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 6,571,178 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,327,707,000 after buying an additional 1,509,439 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 262.5% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,390,501 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $280,951,000 after buying an additional 1,006,937 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alkeon Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 87.7% during the third quarter. Alkeon Capital Management LLC now owns 1,877,133 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $379,275,000 after buying an additional 877,133 shares during the last quarter. 80.56% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. KeyCorp raised shares of Applied Materials from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $225.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, January 17th. Needham & Company LLC cut their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $240.00 to $225.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 15th. TD Cowen dropped their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $250.00 to $230.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $220.00 to $210.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Applied Materials currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $218.71.

Applied Materials Stock Up 0.9 %

AMAT stock traded up $1.63 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $174.48. 1,220,361 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,590,156. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 1 year low of $158.96 and a 1 year high of $255.89. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $174.15 and its two-hundred day moving average is $187.64. The stock has a market cap of $141.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 2.51 and a quick ratio of 1.87.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 14th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.19 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $7.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.96 billion. Applied Materials had a net margin of 26.41% and a return on equity of 39.26%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.12 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 9.38 EPS for the current year.

Applied Materials Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. Applied Materials’s payout ratio is 18.58%.

Applied Materials Company 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.