What Happened?

Shares of semiconductor machinery manufacturer Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT) jumped 1.6% in the morning session after analyst firms raised their price targets on the stock. B. Riley Securities maintained its Buy rating on Applied Materials and increased its price target to $305.00 from $270.00. 

Adding to the positive sentiment, Deutsche Bank also adjusted its price target upward to $275 from $230, while maintaining its Hold rating. The move also came amid a broader tech-led rally, where semiconductor stocks outperformed. This positive market behavior was supported by reports of a global semiconductor industry in an expansionary phase, with one investment bank noting strong demand for artificial intelligence and data centers was expected to fuel growth into 2026.

After the initial pop the shares cooled down to $255.81, up 0.9% from previous close.

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What Is The Market Telling Us

Applied Materials’s shares are quite volatile and have had 16 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.

The previous big move we wrote about was 17 days ago when the stock gained 4.4% on the news that several investment firms expressed a positive outlook for the company, with KeyBanc and Morgan Stanley raising their price targets and UBS upgrading the stock's rating. 

KeyBanc increased its price target to $285 from $240, keeping an Overweight rating. The firm noted long-term demand drivers from artificial intelligence applications. In a similar move, UBS upgraded Applied Materials from Neutral to Buy and also set a $285 price target, citing a good outlook for wafer fab equipment, which is used to produce memory chips. Adding to the positive sentiment, Morgan Stanley adjusted its price target upward to $273 from $252, while also maintaining an Overweight rating on the shares.

Applied Materials is up 56.1% since the beginning of the year, and at $255.81 per share, it is trading close to its 52-week high of $275.15 from December 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Applied Materials’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $2,960.

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