Capital Advisors Inc. OK Buys 7,197 Shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT)

Capital Advisors Inc. OK grew its stake in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 2.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 288,151 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,197 shares during the quarter. Capital Advisors Inc. OK’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $46,862,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in shares of Applied Materials by 29.8% in 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 purchasing an additional 1,509,439 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in shares of Applied Materials by 8.6% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,077,107 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $340,895,000 after purchasing an additional 164,085 shares during the period. WoodTrust Financial Corp raised its position in shares of Applied Materials by 47.0% in the third quarter. WoodTrust Financial Corp now owns 67,915 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $13,722,000 after purchasing an additional 21,699 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Applied Materials by 1.4% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,139,114 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $230,158,000 after purchasing an additional 15,183 shares during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its position in shares of Applied Materials by 62.6% in the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,698,282 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock valued at $343,138,000 after purchasing an additional 653,739 shares during the period. 80.56% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Applied Materials Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ AMAT opened at $183.20 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $175.20 and a 200 day simple moving average of $185.04. The firm has a market cap of $148.89 billion, a PE ratio of 21.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.53. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 1 year low of $158.96 and a 1 year high of $255.89. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 14th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.19 by $0.13. Applied Materials had a net margin of 26.41% and a return on equity of 39.26%. The firm had revenue of $7.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.96 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.12 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 9.38 EPS for the current year.

Applied Materials Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 20th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.87%. Applied Materials’s payout ratio is 18.58%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on AMAT shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft dropped their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $220.00 to $200.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Mizuho decreased their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $220.00 to $210.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Applied Materials in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $164.00 price target (down from $179.00) on shares of Applied Materials in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Applied Materials presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $218.00.

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.