Elevation Point Wealth Partners LLC Trims Holdings in Applied Materials, Inc. $AMAT

Elevation Point Wealth Partners LLC reduced its stake in Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) by 77.6% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 4,583 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock after selling 15,881 shares during the quarter. Elevation Point Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $938,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Marquette Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Applied Materials by 150.0% during the third quarter. Marquette Asset Management LLC now owns 125 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Redmont Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Applied Materials during the third quarter worth $26,000. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Materials in the second quarter valued at $31,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Materials in the third quarter valued at $31,000. Finally, Howard Hughes Medical Institute purchased a new stake in shares of Applied Materials in the 2nd quarter valued at $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.56% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on AMAT. KGI Securities raised Applied Materials to an “outperform” rating and set a $425.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Applied Materials from $340.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $420.00 to $432.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 25th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $315.00 to $450.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on shares of Applied Materials from $390.00 to $440.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $363.46.

Applied Materials Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ AMAT opened at $346.18 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 2.71 and a quick ratio of 1.94. The company has a market cap of $274.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.65. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $335.72 and its two-hundred day moving average is $264.45. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 1-year low of $123.74 and a 1-year high of $395.95.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 12th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.21 by $0.17. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 37.52% and a net margin of 27.78%.The business had revenue of $7.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.88 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.38 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Applied Materials has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 2.440-2.840 EPS. Analysts forecast that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 9.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Applied Materials Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 11th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 21st will be paid a $0.53 dividend. This is an increase from Applied Materials’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.46. This represents a $2.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 21st. Applied Materials’s payout ratio is presently 18.83%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Brice Hill sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $361.21, for a total value of $1,806,050.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 138,565 shares in the company, valued at approximately $50,051,063.65. This trade represents a 3.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Judy Bruner sold 3,969 shares of Applied Materials stock in a transaction on Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $377.02, for a total transaction of $1,496,392.38. Following the sale, the director directly owned 28,589 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,778,624.78. This trade represents a 12.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 12,003 shares of company stock worth $4,484,189 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

About Applied Materials

Applied Materials, Inc is a U.S.-based supplier of equipment, services and software used to manufacture semiconductor chips, flat panel displays and other advanced materials. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, the company designs and sells capital equipment and related technologies that enable production of integrated circuits, display panels and materials used across the electronics supply chain.

Applied Materials’ offerings include process equipment and factory software that support critical steps in device fabrication, such as deposition, etch, implantation, inspection and metrology, as well as systems for packaging and advanced heterogeneous integration.