Semiconductor equipment vendor Applied Materials late Thursday beat estimates for its fiscal second quarter and guided above views for the current period. But AMAT stock dipped in extended trading.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company earned an adjusted $2.09 a share on sales of $6.65 billion in the quarter ended April 28. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected earnings of $1.99 a share on sales of $6.54 billion. On a year-over-year basis, Applied Materials earnings increased 5% while sales rose a fraction.
For the current quarter, Applied Materials expects to earn an adjusted $2.01 a share on sales of $6.65 billion. That's based on the midpoint of its guidance. Wall Street was modeling earnings of $1.98 a share on sales of $6.59 billion in the fiscal third quarter. In the year-earlier period, Applied Materials earned an adjusted $1.90 a share on sales of $6.43 billion.
"Applied Materials has the most enabling portfolio of materials engineering technologies for chips that underpin tectonic shifts in technology including AI (artificial intelligence), IoT (Internet of Things), electric vehicles and clean energy," Chief Executive Gary Dickerson said in a news release. The company is "in a great position to grow along with these long-term, secular trends."
DRAM Gear Sales Drive Q2 Beat
In fiscal Q2, Applied Materials saw the fastest sales growth in technologies for producing DRAM memory chips. DRAM stands for dynamic random-access memory. DRAM equipment sales accounted for 32% of the company's semiconductor system sales in the period, up from 11% in the year-earlier period.
China continues to be the company's largest geographic market, making up 43% of sales in Q2.
In after-hours trading on the stock market today, AMAT stock retreated 1% to 211.97. During the regular session Thursday, AMAT stock sank 1.5% to close at 214.17.
On Wednesday, AMAT stock broke out of a flat base at a buy point of 214.91, according to IBD MarketSurge charts.
Further, Applied Materials is on the IBD Tech Leaders list.
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