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

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In the latest trading session, Applied Materials (AMAT - Free Report) closed at $141.21, marking a +1.22% move from the previous day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.37%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the maker of chipmaking equipment had gained 11.43% over the past month. This has outpaced the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 5.35% and the S&P 500's gain of 5.96% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from AMAT as it approaches its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect AMAT to post earnings of $1.94 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 55.2%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $6.33 billion, up 35.07% from the prior-year quarter.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for AMAT. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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.

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 0.17% higher. AMAT is holding a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) right now.

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that AMAT has a Forward P/E ratio of 17.63 right now. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 19.36, so we one might conclude that AMAT is trading at a discount comparatively.

It is also worth noting that AMAT currently has a PEG ratio of 0.91. 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. AMAT's industry had an average PEG ratio of 0.98 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 65, putting it in the top 26% 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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