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

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In the latest trading session, Applied Materials (AMAT - Free Report) closed at $44.07, marking a -0.38% move from the previous day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.1%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.15%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.66%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the maker of chipmaking equipment had gained 7.56% over the past month. This has outpaced the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 6.31% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.95% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from AMAT as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be May 16, 2019. On that day, AMAT is projected to report earnings of $0.79 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 35.25%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $3.48 billion, down 23.9% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $2.94 per share and revenue of $14.50 billion. These totals would mark changes of -33.93% and -15.97%, respectively, from last year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for AMAT. 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.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant. AMAT is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).

In terms of valuation, AMAT is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 15.06. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 15.06, which means AMAT is trading at a no noticeable deviation to the group.

We can also see that AMAT currently has a PEG ratio of 1.85. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Semiconductor Equipment - Wafer Fabrication was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.48 at yesterday's closing price.

The Semiconductor Equipment - Wafer Fabrication industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 109, which puts it in the top 43% 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.

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


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