Yahoo Finance Applied Materials (AMAT) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know
In the latest trading session, Applied Materials (AMAT) closed at $111.68, marking a +1.24% move from the previous day. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.96%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 1.57%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 3.03%.
Heading into today, shares of the maker of chipmaking equipment had lost 7.96% over the past month, lagging the Computer and Technology sector's loss of 0.91% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.19% in that time.
Investors will be hoping for strength from Applied Materials as it approaches its next earnings release. On that day, Applied Materials is projected to report earnings of $1.84 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 0.54%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $6.4 billion, up 2.42% from the year-ago period.
AMAT's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $7.01 per share and revenue of $24.56 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of -8.96% and -4.76%, respectively.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Applied Materials. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. Applied Materials is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
In terms of valuation, Applied Materials is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 15.74. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 17.02, so we one might conclude that Applied Materials is trading at a discount comparatively.
Meanwhile, AMAT's PEG ratio is currently 2.81. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Semiconductor Equipment - Wafer Fabrication industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.81 as of yesterday's close.
The Semiconductor Equipment - Wafer Fabrication industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 112, putting it in the top 45% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.
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Applied Materials, Inc. (AMAT) : Free Stock Analysis Report
