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Applied Materials (AMAT) Stock Moves -0.16%: What You Should Know

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Applied Materials (AMAT - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $182.70, moving -0.16% from the previous trading session. This move was narrower than the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.92%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.96%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 1.6%.

The maker of chipmaking equipment's shares have seen a decrease of 7% over the last month, not keeping up with the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 3.64% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.68%.

Market participants will be closely following the financial results of Applied Materials in its upcoming release. In that report, analysts expect Applied Materials to post earnings of $2.18 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 2.83%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $6.94 billion, up 3.22% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $8.51 per share and revenue of $27.07 billion. These totals would mark changes of +5.71% and +2.09%, respectively, from last year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Applied Materials. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Empirical research indicates that these revisions in estimates have a direct correlation with impending stock price performance. To capitalize on this, we've crafted the Zacks Rank, a unique model that incorporates these estimate changes and offers a practical rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, spanning from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), boasts an impressive track record of outperformance, audited externally, with #1 ranked stocks yielding an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. Applied Materials currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

In the context of valuation, Applied Materials is at present trading with a Forward P/E ratio of 21.5. This expresses a discount compared to the average Forward P/E of 27.19 of its industry.

It is also worth noting that AMAT currently has a PEG ratio of 2.5. 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. By the end of yesterday's trading, the Semiconductor Equipment - Wafer Fabrication industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.3.

The Semiconductor Equipment - Wafer Fabrication industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 182, putting it in the bottom 28% 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 use Zacks.com to monitor all these stock-influencing metrics, and more, throughout the forthcoming trading sessions.


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