The Buy for Applied Materials (AMAT) this week is based on the most recent comparative pricing of its shares and stock market ratings. The Buy recommendation for Applied Materials Inc (NASDAQ:AMAT) stands out more as a result of being a component of a sector and an industry group that are ranked above average in attractiveness. Aspects of this recommendation include analytical scoring that is near average, a ranking in the company's industry group that is in the top third, a ranking in its sector group that is in the top third, and a mathematical computation of risk/reward that is attractive. The current Portfolio Grader recommendation on the shares has been in place for the last month.
The company ranks in the top 10% of its industry group, Electronic Production Equipment, and in the top decile of sector group, Electronic Technology, with a market value of $58.3 billion.
Currently, Portfolio Grader ranks the Electronic Technology sector number 3 among the 20 sectors in its universe putting it in the top quartile of all the GICS sectors. The Electronic Production Equipment industry group is ranked 35 among the 129 industry groups within the GICS sectors, placing it near the average in terms of the Proprietary Quantitative Score scoring system.
AMAT has realized above-average scores in 4 of the 8 fundamental metrics used by Portfolio Grader and average or below-average grades in 4 of the areas used in the ranking of company stocks.
The company's operational scores provide mixed results with a ranking for sales growth that is well above the industry average but rankings for operating margin and earnings growth are below average. Scores for visibility of earnings are mixed, with a ranking for earnings revisions and earnings surprises that are better than average, while the score for earnings momentum is much worse than average. AMAT's ranking for return on equity is markedly better than its industry group average but its grade for cash flow is below-average. Applied Materials' fundamental scores give AMAT a place in the top half of the industry group.
Portfolio Grader quantitatively measures AMAT's shares using the Proprietary Quantitative Score. This metric looks at AMAT's shares from the angle of risk/reward. This proprietary scoring methodology takes into account the relative value of the company's shares based on the recent $55.03 share price of the shares relative to its peers, the market and risk associated with its industry and sector groups. Considering this risk/reward calculation, AMAT currently scores above-average in its industry group compared to its peers.
The Proprietary Portfolio Grader stock ranking system assesses roughly 5,000 companies every week based on a number of fundamental and quantitative measures. Stocks are given a letter grade based on their results, with A being 'strong buy' and F being 'strong sell'. Explore the tool here.
Commentary provided by UpTick Data Technologies.
