Dallas, Texas 11/14/2013 (Financialstrend) – The S&P 500 index tracked Applied Materials Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) is expected to announce its third quarter operation results on November 14, after close of markets. In the run up to the announcement, the $21 billion large cap has attracted a lot of analyst interest. On November 11, it won a major upgrade from Stifel. The technology and component manufacturer stock got upgraded to a Buy and more importantly, its price target got pushed up to $23 from the previous $18.
But long term investors in the stock would also have been shaken by the drop in 1Q14 revenue that the industry bell weather Cisco System, Inc. (NASDAQ”CSCO) reported after trading was suspended for the day yesterday. While the network technology and hardware major saw its profit for the quarter ending September 30 dip by a substantive 5% in comparison to its 1Q13 net income. What would cause more anxiety among the investors of this sector’s stock is the lowered and soft forecast the $128 billion market capped company provided for the full year. It has warned of headwinds buffeting their business and expects its full year FY14 net income to drop as much as 10% in comparison to FY13.
Considering Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) own operational weakness in the recent past, which has pushed the company with a market cap of $21 billion to report net losses of $442 million from operations over the trailing 12 months, investors would be well served to look for indicators which will give them direction on the potential of the stock to appreciate further in the near future when its earning call happens later today.
The firm which manufactures equipment and software which is used in the semiconductor industry was trading at $17.67 per share as of close of business yesterday and was 2.8% lower than its 52 week high price.
