BN · rank #7 · 2026-10-21
AMAT
NASDAQ · $321.39B (USD)
The exact numbers the algorithm saw.
| Composite score Z-score blend of the factors below; drives the rank. | 0.65 |
|---|---|
| Forward revenue growth Consensus forward revenue growth. | +35.4% |
| Forward net margin Consensus forward net margin. | +32.1% |
| Net margin TTM Trailing twelve month net margin. | +30.0% |
| Margin expansion Forward minus trailing net margin (percentage points). | +2.1% |
| Forward PEG Forward P/E to growth. Below 1 is cheap for the growth. | 0.83 |
| Debt / FCF Net debt relative to free cash flow. Lower is safer. | 1.31× |
| Analyst upside Spread between the consensus 12m target and the current price. | +52.0% |
| Last EPS surprise Most recent reported EPS versus consensus. | +4% |
| Market cap (USD) | $321.39B |
The AI research card
Independent qualitative review of each pick before the order is placed. On the rare day the research service is unavailable, the paper book trades on the quant ranking alone and no card appears here.
Summary
Applied Materials is the world's largest semiconductor equipment company, supplying deposition, etch, inspection, and packaging tools to leading-edge logic, DRAM, HBM, and advanced-packaging fabs globally.
Rationale
AMAT's eight-quarter customer order visibility, 25% YoY revenue growth, record FCF, sub-1 forward PEG of 0.83, and direct exposure to HBM/advanced-packaging capex confirm it as a structural bottleneck-solver rather than a sentiment rotation play.
Material risks
- 1Incremental U.S. export controls on China could abruptly remove a material equipment market, directly compressing Semiconductor Systems revenue and breaking the sustained-capex assumption the bottleneck-solver thesis requires.
- 2The EPIC Center and AI-chip partnerships are strategic positioning, not sole-source wins; if AI infrastructure spending plateaus, AMAT competes with Lam, TEL, and ASM rather than owning an uncontested chokepoint, capping upside relative to the 51% analyst target.
AI verdict council
Each pick is reviewed independently by 3 models before any order. 3 of 3 voted to proceed.