Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.40

Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, December 13th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 20th will be paid a dividend of 0.40 per share by the manufacturing equipment provider on Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.94%.

Applied Materials has raised its dividend by an average of 11.9% annually over the last three years. Applied Materials has a payout ratio of 16.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Applied Materials to earn $10.47 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 15.3%.

Applied Materials Price Performance

Applied Materials stock opened at $169.35 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $182.86 and a 200-day moving average of $201.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $139.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 1.87 and a current ratio of 2.51. Applied Materials has a 52 week low of $148.05 and a 52 week high of $255.89.

Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 14th. The manufacturing equipment provider reported $2.32 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.19 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $7.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.96 billion. Applied Materials had a net margin of 26.41% and a return on equity of 39.26%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.12 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Applied Materials will post 9.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on AMAT. StockNews.com cut shares of Applied Materials from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 14th. Dbs Bank lowered shares of Applied Materials from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced 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 note on Friday, November 15th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $250.00 target price on shares of Applied Materials in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their price target on Applied Materials from $220.00 to $210.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $220.29.

Applied Materials Company Profile

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.