Applied Materials (AMAT) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know
In the latest trading session, Applied Materials (AMAT) closed at $33.64, marking a -0.33% move from the previous day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.22%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.59%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.16%.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the maker of chipmaking equipment had gained 1.41% over the past month. This has outpaced the Computer and Technology sector's loss of 0.37% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.49% in that time.
AMAT will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be February 13, 2019. In that report, analysts expect AMAT to post earnings of $0.79 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 25.47%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $3.72 billion, down 11.57% from the year-ago period.
For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $3.45 per share and revenue of $15.45 billion, which would represent changes of -22.47% and -10.47%, respectively, from the prior year.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for AMAT. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of 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. 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 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 has moved 0.37% lower. 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 9.79. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 10.16, so we one might conclude that AMAT is trading at a discount comparatively.
We can also see that AMAT currently has a PEG ratio of 1.14. 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. The Semiconductor Equipment - Wafer Fabrication was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.08 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 238, which puts it in the bottom 8% 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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Applied Materials, Inc. (AMAT) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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