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Applied Materials (AMAT) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know

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Applied Materials (AMAT - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $43.89, moving +0.39% from the previous trading session. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.23% loss on the day. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.01%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.05%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the maker of chipmaking equipment had gained 8.3% over the past month. This has outpaced the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 4.13% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.16% in that time.

AMAT will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. On that day, AMAT is projected to report earnings of $0.66 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 45.9%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $3.48 billion, down 23.9% from the prior-year quarter.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $2.94 per share and revenue of $14.50 billion, which would represent changes of -33.93% and -15.97%, respectively, from the prior year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for AMAT should also be noted by investors. 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.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. 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 ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. AMAT is holding a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell) right now.

Investors should also note AMAT's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 14.88. This represents a no noticeable deviation compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 14.88.

Meanwhile, AMAT's PEG ratio is currently 1.73. 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 1.46 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Semiconductor Equipment - Wafer Fabrication industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 203, which puts it in the bottom 21% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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