William Blair Investment Management LLC Has $8.41 Million Position in Applied Materials, Inc. $AMAT

William Blair Investment Management LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 53.3% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 45,938 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after selling 52,460 shares during the quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $8,410,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AMAT. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Applied Materials during the first quarter worth $1,085,600,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Materials in the 2nd quarter valued at $882,396,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 2,401.0% in the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,066,817 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $445,056,000 after purchasing an additional 2,944,193 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 43.6% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,573,673 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $808,853,000 after purchasing an additional 1,691,428 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Applied Materials by 23.6% in the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,860,838 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,140,836,000 after purchasing an additional 1,502,995 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on AMAT shares. KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 10th. Evercore ISI reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $209.00 price target on shares of Applied Materials in a research report on Friday, August 15th. B. Riley upped their price target on Applied Materials from $200.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $225.00 price target on shares of Applied Materials in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Applied Materials from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $172.00 to $209.00 in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Eighteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $209.15.

Applied Materials Price Performance

Shares of AMAT opened at $228.13 on Tuesday. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 52-week low of $123.74 and a 52-week high of $232.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 1.76 and a current ratio of 2.50. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $187.67 and a 200 day simple moving average of $175.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $181.74 billion, a PE ratio of 27.19, a P/E/G ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 1.82.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 14th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.48 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.12. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 40.96% and a net margin of 23.88%.The firm had revenue of $7.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.21 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.12 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis. Applied Materials has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 1.910-2.310 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 9.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Applied Materials Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 20th will be given a dividend of $0.46 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 20th. This represents a $1.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. Applied Materials’s dividend payout ratio is 21.93%.

About Applied Materials

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.