Gary Dickerson, President and CEO of Applied Materials (AMAT), recently bought 50,000 shares. The buy increased his position by 3%, and came to a total cost of $6.85 million.
This marks the first insider buy at the company over the past two years. Otherwise, insiders have been periodic sellers of shares over the past two years. That includes Dickerson, who sold 400,000 shares last June, at a share price over $100 higher from where AMAT trades today.
Overall, Applied Materials insiders own 0.3% of shares.
Shares have been knocked down 36% over the past year. Operationally, the chipmaker has had a mixed year. Revenues are up by 7%, but earnings growth slid by 41%.
On a valuation basis, Applied Materials looks strong, trading at 14 times earnings. Long-term demand for building out the AI space still looks attractive, even amid the recent market fear.
Action to take: Applied Materials shares have been in a downtrend for nearly a year, and have only seen a small bounce higher with markets in recent sessions. Interested investors may want to buy a starting stake here, and use any further market weakness to add to that position in the months ahead.
At current prices, Applied Materials also pays a 1.4% dividend.
For traders, the current trend is down. The June $120 puts, last trading for about $6.05, stand a strong chance of moving in-the-money on further market weakness. Traders can likely see mid-double-digit returns.
Disclosure: The author of this article has no position in the company mentioned here, but may trade after the next 72 hours. The author receives no compensation from any company mentioned in this article.
