Traynor Capital Management Inc. decreased its position in shares of Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT – Get Rating) by 17.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 53,078 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider's stock after selling 11,557 shares during the quarter. Traynor Capital Management Inc.'s holdings in Applied Materials were worth $4,348,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Walleye Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Applied Materials by 184.4% during the 2nd quarter. Walleye Capital LLC now owns 16,830 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider's stock worth $1,531,000 after buying an additional 10,913 shares during the period. Chilton Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Applied Materials during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Capital Analysts LLC grew its position in shares of Applied Materials by 11.3% during the 2nd quarter. Capital Analysts LLC now owns 1,474 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider's stock worth $134,000 after buying an additional 150 shares during the period. Welch & Forbes LLC grew its position in shares of Applied Materials by 14.6% during the 3rd quarter. Welch & Forbes LLC now owns 6,439 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider's stock worth $528,000 after buying an additional 821 shares during the period. Finally, Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC grew its position in shares of Applied Materials by 5.3% during the 2nd quarter. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC now owns 13,080 shares of the manufacturing equipment provider's stock worth $1,190,000 after buying an additional 657 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.22% of the company's stock.

Applied Materials Price Performance

AMAT stock traded up $0.17 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $118.82. 2,122,336 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,215,164. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 2.31 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The company has a market capitalization of $100.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.10, a P/E/G ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.61. Applied Materials, Inc. has a 52-week low of $71.12 and a 52-week high of $142.01. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $112.00 and a 200-day moving average price of $100.73.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 16th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.03 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.10. Applied Materials had a return on equity of 55.08% and a net margin of 24.57%. The company had revenue of $6.74 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.66 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.89 earnings per share. Applied Materials's revenue was up 7.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Applied Materials, Inc. will post 6.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Applied Materials Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 23rd will be issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.88%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 22nd. Applied Materials's payout ratio is 13.94%.

Insider Transactions at Applied Materials

In other Applied Materials news, Director Xun Chen sold 377 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.80, for a total value of $40,640.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 39,868 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,297,770.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Applied Materials news, Director Xun Chen sold 377 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $107.80, for a total value of $40,640.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 39,868 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,297,770.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Teri A. Little sold 6,813 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total value of $800,118.72. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 98,332 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $11,548,110.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.25% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AMAT has been the subject of several research reports. Barclays downgraded shares of Applied Materials from an "equal weight" rating to an "underweight" rating and lifted their price target for the company from $80.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Monday, January 23rd. Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $80.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, November 18th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, February 17th. Summit Insights raised shares of Applied Materials from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, November 18th. Finally, Cowen reduced their price target on shares of Applied Materials from $279.00 to $271.00 in a research report on Friday, February 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and twenty-one have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $129.16.

About Applied Materials

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Applied Materials, Inc provides manufacturing equipment, services and software to the semiconductor, display and related industries. It operates through the following segments: Semiconductor Systems, Applied Global Services, and Display & Adjacent Markets. The Semiconductor Systems segment includes semiconductor capital equipment for etch, rapid thermal processing, deposition, chemical mechanical planarization, metrology and inspection, wafer packaging, and ion implantation.

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