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

Applied Materials (AMAT) closed the most recent trading day at $32.67, moving +0.06% from the previous trading session. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 2.08%. At the same time, the Dow lost 2.11%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 2.27%.

Heading into today, shares of the maker of chipmaking equipment had lost 6.77% over the past month, lagging the Computer and Technology sector's loss of 1.55% and the S&P 500's loss of 3.6% 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. On that day, AMAT is projected to report earnings of $0.79 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 25.47%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $3.72 billion, down 11.57% from the year-ago period.

AMAT's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $3.54 per share and revenue of $15.45 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of -20.45% and -10.47%, respectively.

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. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 16.03% lower within the past month. AMAT is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Digging into valuation, AMAT currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 9.23. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 9.42, which means AMAT is trading at a discount to the group.

Investors should also note that AMAT has a PEG ratio of 1.07 right now. 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. The Semiconductor Equipment - Wafer Fabrication was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.07 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 223, which puts it in the bottom 13% 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.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
 
Applied Materials, Inc. (AMAT) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
To read this article on Zacks.com click here.