Applied Materials (AMAT) ended the recent trading session at $144.53, demonstrating a -0.28% swing from the preceding day's closing price. The stock fell short of the S&P 500, which registered a gain of 0.79% for the day. Elsewhere, the Dow saw an upswing of 0.78%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq appreciated by 0.64%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the maker of chipmaking equipment had lost 6.89% over the past month. This has lagged the Computer and Technology sector's loss of 4.81% and the S&P 500's loss of 3.56% in that time.

Market participants will be closely following the financial results of Applied Materials in its upcoming release. The company is expected to report EPS of $2.30, up 10.05% from the prior-year quarter. Alongside, our most recent consensus estimate is anticipating revenue of $7.11 billion, indicating a 6.97% upward movement from the same quarter last year.

For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates project earnings of $9.36 per share and a revenue of $28.81 billion, demonstrating changes of +8.21% and +6.01%, respectively, from the preceding year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Applied Materials. Such recent modifications usually signify the changing landscape of near-term business trends. Hence, positive alterations in estimates signify analyst optimism regarding the company's business and profitability.

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.

The Zacks Rank system, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.16% higher. Applied Materials presently features a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Looking at its valuation, Applied Materials is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 15.48. This signifies a discount in comparison to the average Forward P/E of 19.99 for its industry.

Meanwhile, AMAT's PEG ratio is currently 1.53. 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 average PEG ratio for the Electronics - Semiconductors industry stood at 1.37 at the close of the market yesterday.

The Electronics - Semiconductors industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 34, this industry ranks in the top 14% of all industries, numbering over 250.

The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the strength of our separate industry groups by calculating the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks contained within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Don't forget to use Zacks.com to keep track of all these stock-moving metrics, and others, in the upcoming trading sessions.

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Applied Materials, Inc. (AMAT) : Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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