On The Chart of the Day In addition to highlighting stocks by using Barchart's powerful screening functions to find stocks with the highest technical buy signals, highest Weighted Alpha, superior current momentum and having a Trend Seeker buy signal we will also include coverage of stocks that are trending in the search results on the Internet.
Today we are featuring semiconductor company Applied Materials (AMAT) . At the present time the Trend Seeker has a sell signal but it appears that might turn to a buy around $225.
Applied Materials, Inc. engages in the provision of manufacturing equipment, services, and software to the semiconductor, display, and related industries. The company operates through three segments: Semiconductor Systems, Applied Global Services, and Display and Adjacent Markets. The Semiconductor Systems segment develops, manufactures, and sells various manufacturing equipment that is used to fabricate semiconductor chips or integrated circuits. This segment also offers various technologies, including epitaxy, ion implantation, oxidation/nitridation, rapid thermal processing, physical vapor deposition, chemical vapor deposition, chemical mechanical planarization, electrochemical deposition, atomic layer deposition, etching, and selective deposition and removal, as well as metrology and inspection tools. The Applied Global Services segment provides integrated solutions to optimize equipment and fab performance and productivity comprising spares, upgrades, services, remanufactured earlier generation equipment, and factory automation software for semiconductor, display, and other products. The Display and Adjacent Markets segment offers products for manufacturing liquid crystal displays; organic light-emitting diodes; and other display technologies for TVs, monitors, laptops, personal computers, electronic tablets, smart phones, and other consumer-oriented devices. It operates in the United States, China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia, and Europe. The company was incorporated in 1967 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.
Barchart's Opinion Trading systems are listed below. Please note that the Barchart Opinion indicators are updated live during the session every 20 minutes and can therefore change during the day as the market fluctuates. The indicator numbers shown below therefore may not match what you see live on the Barchart.com website when you read this report.
Barchart Technical Indicators:
- 24% technical buy signals
- 43.09+ Weighted Alpha
- 60 month Beta of 1.56
- 51.22% gain in the last year
- Trend Seeker sell signal but weakening
- Above its 20 and 200 day moving averages
- 1 new highs and down 13.73% in the last month
- Relative Strength Index 53.47%
- Technical support level at $206.97
- Recently traded at $211.83 which is below its 50 day moving average of $221.86
Fundamental Factors:
- Market Cap $166 billion
- P/E 24.37
- Dividend yield .67%
- Revenue expected to grow 1.50% this year and another 11.20% next year
- Earnings estimated to increase 4.00% this year and an additional 15.30% next year and continue to compound at an annual rate of 15.38% for the next 5 years
Analysts and Investor Sentiment -- I don't buy stocks because everyone else is buying but I do realize that if major firms and investors are dumping a stock it's hard to make money swimming against the tide:
- Wall Street analyst gave 19 strong buy, 2 buy, and11 hold opinions on the stock
- Analysts' price targets are between $198 and $300 with a consensus of $248
- Value Line gives the stock its above average rating of 2 with price targets between $141 and $301 with a mid-point of $221
- Value Line also reported on 6/21 when the stock was trading at $228 that investors should watch for a pull back to buy the stock - That may have happended on 8/15 when the stock bottomed at $205.30
- CFRAs MarketScope rates the stock a 4 star buy with a price target of $243
- MorningStar rates the stock an average 3 star with Fair Value at $193
- 116,530 investors monitor the stock on Seeking Alpha
Additional disclosure: The Barchart Chart of the Day highlights stocks that are experiencing exceptional current price appreciation. They are not intended to be buy recommendations as these stocks are extremely volatile and speculative. Should you decide to add one of these stocks to your investment portfolio it is highly suggested you follow a predetermined diversification and moving stop loss discipline that is consistent with your personal investment risk tolerance and reevaluate your stop losses at least on a weekly basis.
On the date of publication, Jim Van Meerten did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
