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

Applied Materials (AMAT) closed at $152.45 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.91% move from the prior day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.92%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.51%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.54%.

Coming into today, shares of the maker of chipmaking equipment had gained 1.69% in the past month. In that same time, the Computer and Technology sector lost 5.93%, while the S&P 500 lost 0.85%.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Applied Materials as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect Applied Materials to post earnings of $1.85 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 33.09%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $6.16 billion, up 19.41% from the year-ago period.

AMAT's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $8.13 per share and revenue of $26.54 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +18.86% and +15.06%, respectively.

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.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. 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.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.44% higher. Applied Materials currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Applied Materials has a Forward P/E ratio of 18.39 right now. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 18.85.

We can also see that AMAT currently has a PEG ratio of 1.57. 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. Semiconductor Equipment - Wafer Fabrication stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.14 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Semiconductor Equipment - Wafer Fabrication industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 105, which puts it in the top 42% 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.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.

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