--- title: "Weekly Recap | Applied Materials -2.93%, most brokers rate it buy" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/296666875.md" description: "Applied Materials (AMAT) fell 2.93% this week to close at $492.32, underperforming the S&P 500 which slipped 1.43% — a relative weakness of roughly 1.5 percentage points. The stock swung wildly through the week, with an amplitude of 10.94%. Monday (Aug 17) was the standout session: shares gapped higher and surged as much as 5.5% to an intraday high of $539.81, marking the only solidly green candle of the week." datetime: "2026-08-22T04:31:45.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/296666875.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/296666875.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/296666875.md) generator: "portal-rs" --- # Weekly Recap | Applied Materials -2.93%, most brokers rate it buy ## The Week Applied Materials (AMAT) fell 2.93% this week to close at $492.32, underperforming the S&P 500 which slipped 1.43% — a relative weakness of roughly 1.5 percentage points. The stock swung wildly through the week, with an amplitude of 10.94%. Monday (Aug 17) was the standout session: shares gapped higher and surged as much as 5.5% to an intraday high of $539.81, marking the only solidly green candle of the week. The tone shifted abruptly on Tuesday (Aug 18) when the stock opened sharply lower and slid 3.9%, giving back most of the prior day’s gains. Selling pressure persisted through the final three sessions, with the low of the week printed on Friday (Aug 21) at $483.13 before a modest late-session recovery trimmed the loss. Weekly average daily volume came in at 7.39 million shares, down about 14% from the 60-day median. ## Key Events AMAT’s week revolved around its fiscal third-quarter earnings release. Early Monday, the stock rallied 5.5% alongside a broad semiconductor sector lift driven by enthusiasm around AI memory demand. Some call options surged more than 1,300% on the session. When the company delivered its results before Tuesday’s open, the numbers were strong: revenue hit $9.12 billion and EPS came in at $3.17, both ahead of consensus. Advanced Packaging revenue grew 70% year-on-year, and management flagged continuing momentum in HBM-related demand. On the earnings call, the company said it sees years of AI-fuelled growth ahead. Despite the beat, the stock reversed hard — AMAT opened more than 4% lower on Tuesday, which some market participants attributed to profit-taking ahead of the Jackson Hole symposium and broader macro caution. Elsewhere, a filing revealed that Paul Tudor Jones had liquidated his entire stake in AMAT, while Greenwoods Asset Management initiated a new position during the week. ## Analyst Ratings Coverage remains overwhelmingly positive: 39 analysts currently rate AMAT, with 28 assigning a buy and 4 an overweight — no sell or underweight ratings are on the books. The remaining 7 rate the stock a hold. The consensus recommendation is a Strong Buy, and the consensus target price sits at $641.03, implying roughly 30.2% upside from the latest close. The range of targets, however, is wide — from a low of $358 to a high of $900 — reflecting divergent views on how far the AI investment cycle can run. Among the 31 companies in the semiconductor materials and equipment industry, AMAT ranks second in analyst rating. ## The Week Ahead AMAT has no major corporate events on next week’s calendar, so the spotlight shifts to the macro picture. On Tuesday (Aug 25), the US will release a packed slate of data including the FHFA house price index, the S&P/Case-Shiller home price indices, consumer confidence, and new home sales. These prints will offer the market a fresh read on the health of the American consumer and housing market. Looking further out, the company’s next earnings report — for fiscal Q4 2026 — is scheduled for after the close on November 12, with consensus estimates calling for EPS of $4 on revenue of $10.3 billion. ## In Short Applied Materials delivered a week of short-term divergence between fundamentals and price action. A beat-and-raise quarter backed by robust AI demand was not enough to sustain Monday’s rally, and the stock finished the week in the red. The analyst consensus is decidedly favourable — a Strong Buy rating and a target that sits 30% above spot — though the wide spread in individual targets underscores the genuine uncertainty around the long-term payoff of AI spending. The latest session’s capital flow data showed large-lot money acting as a net buyer while retail money was a net seller, highlighting a split in conviction at current levels. On valuation, the stock trades at a trailing P/E of roughly 42x, near the midpoint of its 60-day range. The path forward hinges on whether upcoming macro data can ease rate-sensitive jitters and whether the AI capex cycle continues to deliver the earnings trajectory that the bull case demands. *This article is generated by LongbridgeAI from market data, for information only and not investment advice.* ### Related Stocks - [AMAT.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AMAT.US.md) - [AMA.US](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AMA.US.md) ## Related News & Research - [Applied Materials: From AI Chips to HBM, Why Does It Benefit From Both?](https://longbridge.com/en/news/298709692.md) - [Prediction: Applied Materials Books Its First $10 Billion Quarter This Fall](https://longbridge.com/en/news/298837827.md) - [Is the AI bubble bursting?](https://longbridge.com/en/news/298981516.md) - [A legal AI startup has a plan to take on Lexis Nexis and Westlaw](https://longbridge.com/en/news/298892675.md) - [Instagram wants you to pay for its AI photo-editing filters](https://longbridge.com/en/news/298960174.md) --- > **Disclaimer: This article is for reference only and does not constitute any investment advice.**