Applied Materials soars as Wall Street scrambles to boost price targets after “narrative-changing quarter”
Wall Street has fresh conviction that Applied Materials is a winner as the AI boom forces an expansion of chipmaking capacity.
The semicap company reported a top- and bottom-line beat, along with Q2 guidance that exceeded estimates, after the close on Thursday, sending shares sharply higher. Applied Materials is trading up double digits as of 8 a.m. ET.
“This is finally the narrative-changing quarter that we have been waiting for,” wrote Needham & Co. analyst Charles Shi, who boosted his price target to $440 from $390. “With AMAT shaking off the bad China narrative and returning to a strong AI-driven beat-and-raise cycle, we expect AMAT valuation gap vs. peers will narrow as AMAT should re-rate higher.”
The numbers speak for themselves, but the words on the conference call didn’t hurt either.
“Management’s decidedly more constructive tone on the call (relative to a more muted/conservative tone on the last call) we think was underpinned by a sharp acceleration in customer orders and activity levels in the quarter,” wrote JPMorgan analyst Harlan Sur, who lifted his price target to $400 from $260.
He spotlighted the strong outlook for its advanced packaging business given “AMAT’s #1 position in HBM where spending is inflecting higher as the absorption of previously shipped equipment concludes and additional capacity/capability is required amid burgeoning demand growth and customers’ rapid technology transitions (HBM3e > HBM4 > HBM4e and beyond).”
Other sell-side shops that took a more more optimistic view and upped their price targets include:
Keybanc, up to $450 from $380;
Barclays, up to $450 from $360;
Wells Fargo, up to $435 from $350;
Citi, up to $420 from $400;
Morgan Stanley, up to $420 from $364;
And Mizuho, up to $410 from $370.
“This is finally the narrative-changing quarter that we have been waiting for,” wrote Needham & Co. analyst Charles Shi, who boosted his price target to $440 from $390. “With AMAT shaking off the bad China narrative and returning to a strong AI-driven beat-and-raise cycle, we expect AMAT valuation gap vs. peers will narrow as AMAT should re-rate higher.”
The numbers speak for themselves, but the words on the conference call didn’t hurt either.
“Management’s decidedly more constructive tone on the call (relative to a more muted/conservative tone on the last call) we think was underpinned by a sharp acceleration in customer orders and activity levels in the quarter,” wrote JPMorgan analyst Harlan Sur, who lifted his price target to $400 from $260.
He spotlighted the strong outlook for its advanced packaging business given “AMAT’s #1 position in HBM where spending is inflecting higher as the absorption of previously shipped equipment concludes and additional capacity/capability is required amid burgeoning demand growth and customers’ rapid technology transitions (HBM3e > HBM4 > HBM4e and beyond).”
Other sell-side shops that took a more more optimistic view and upped their price targets include:
Keybanc, up to $450 from $380;
Barclays, up to $450 from $360;
Wells Fargo, up to $435 from $350;
Citi, up to $420 from $400;
Morgan Stanley, up to $420 from $364;
And Mizuho, up to $410 from $370.
