Applied Materials Shares Rallied 8% During Q2; What's Analyst Sentiment Ahead Of Earnings?

Similarly, sentiment appears to dictate that Applied Materials will report upside in display orders for the third quarter, fueled by its investments in China FPD and OLED. There are also several catalysts that could provide upside potential in the long run, including OLED adoption, 3D NAND build-out and the significant growth in the semiconductor market in China.

Related Link: Expect Robust Q3 Results From Applied Materials, Says D.A. Davidson

Therefore, analysts are expecting the company to report a beat compared to the Street EPS estimate of $0.48 on revenue of $2.84 billion for the third quarter.

In the same way, brokerages expect the guidance for the fourth quarter to be slightly ahead of the Street consensus. For instance, Credit Suisse sees Applied Materials to earn $0.50 per share on $2.90 billion, which was lifted from its earlier expectation of $0.45 on $2.76 billion in revenue. The Street is looking for an EPS of $0.48 on revenue of $2.84 billion.

Analysts' Take

In the last few days, the following brokerages expressed their opinion on Applied Materials shares.

• Credit Suisse retained Outperform rating and lifted the price objective from $26 to $29.
• D.A. Davidson lifted its price tag from $28 to $32 and maintained its Buy rating.
• Stifel kept its Buy rating and boosted its price target from $28 to $35.
• Citi and B Riley maintained their Buy rating on the stock.

At time of writing, the stock traded relatively flat at $27.23 on Wednesday. Applied Materials' earnings release and conference call are scheduled for Thursday after market close.

Full ratings data available on Benzinga Pro.