UPDATE: Citigroup Reiterates Buy Rating, Lowers PT on Applied Materials on Mixed Factors

In a report published Friday, Citigroup analyst Terence Whalen reiterated a Buy rating on

, but lowered the price target from $20.00 to $19.00. In the report, Citigroup noted, “AMAT declined 2% after market after reporting an inline Jul-Q and guiding Oct-Q sales flat, below +4% Street but better than our -3%. Underpinning the flat outlook was foundry orders declining 47% qq reflecting summer seasonality + mobile inventory correction. We'd use Friday's weakness to Buy Citi Focus List AMAT. We favorably view: a) AMAT's reallocation of SG&A $s (down 30%+ qq) to fund R&D for share gains (Fig 1), b) etch share gain momentum comments which are incrementally positive, and c) commentary that AMAT expects foundry and 3D NAND orders to inflect positively in C4Q. Longer-term, we continue to view AMAT as the best positioned equipment stock to benefit from both FinFET transistor and 3D NAND inflections. From this lens, AMAT provides among the most balanced foundry and memory exposure relative to peers.” Applied Materials closed on Thursday at $15.33.