Yahoo Finance Applied Materials (AMAT) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know
Applied Materials (AMAT) closed the most recent trading day at $122.83, moving +0.59% from the previous trading session. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.44%. At the same time, the Dow added 1.26%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 5.21%.
Heading into today, shares of the maker of chipmaking equipment had gained 3.09% over the past month, lagging the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 8.79% and outpacing the S&P 500's gain of 2.28% in that time.
Applied Materials will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect Applied Materials to post earnings of $1.84 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 0.54%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue 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.
It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Applied Materials. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.
Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.
Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.36% higher. Applied Materials is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Investors should also note Applied Materials's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 17.42. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 18.97.
Investors should also note that AMAT has a PEG ratio of 3.11 right now. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. Semiconductor Equipment - Wafer Fabrication stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 3.11 based on yesterday's closing prices.
The Semiconductor Equipment - Wafer Fabrication industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 103, putting it in the top 41% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.
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Applied Materials, Inc. (AMAT) : Free Stock Analysis Report
