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

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Applied Materials (AMAT - Free Report) closed at $135.76 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.13% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.48% gain on the day.

Heading into today, shares of the maker of chipmaking equipment had lost 4.22% over the past month, lagging the Computer and Technology sector's loss of 0.56% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.46% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from AMAT as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, AMAT is projected to report earnings of $1.94 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 55.2%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $6.33 billion, up 35.07% from the year-ago period.

AMAT's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $6.84 per share and revenue of $23.27 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +64.03% and +35.28%, respectively.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for AMAT should also be noted by investors. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.01% higher. AMAT currently has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Digging into valuation, AMAT currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 19.87. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 19.49.

We can also see that AMAT currently has a PEG ratio of 1.03. 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. AMAT's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.03 as of yesterday's close.

The Semiconductor Equipment - Wafer Fabrication industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 59, which puts it in the top 24% 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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