Darden Wealth Group Inc Invests $397,000 in Applied Materials, Inc. $AMAT

Darden Wealth Group Inc bought a new stake in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 2,170 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $397,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMAT. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Applied Materials during the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,085,600,000. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC acquired a new position in Applied Materials during the second quarter worth $882,396,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Applied Materials by 2,401.0% during the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,066,817 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $445,056,000 after acquiring an additional 2,944,193 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Applied Materials by 43.6% during the first 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 acquiring an additional 1,691,428 shares during the period. 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 own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Applied Materials Price Performance

Shares of AMAT stock opened at $228.75 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $182.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.26, a PEG ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.82. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 12 month low of $123.74 and a 12 month high of $232.07. The company has a quick ratio of 1.76, a current ratio of 2.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $191.18 and a 200 day moving average price of $177.63.

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

Applied Materials Dividend Announcement

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on AMAT shares. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Applied Materials from $175.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Evercore ISI reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $209.00 target price on shares of Applied Materials in a research note on Friday, August 15th. Rothschild & Co Redburn lowered Applied Materials from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $200.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, July 7th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on Applied Materials from $180.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, October 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Applied Materials from $215.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Applied Materials has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $209.15.

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.