Applied Materials (AMAT)
Forward P/E is 23.03x against a peer median of 28.76x, a ratio of 0.80x, and the trailing P/E is 35.0x. Latest-quarter revenue growth was +24.8% year over year (PRIMARY/EDGAR), matching the cluster median, and the PEG ratio of 0.73 is below 1, so the discount is not explained by weak growth. Delivered demand check: the cluster's median revenue growth was +24.8% year over year — demand rising.
What would change this label: Move to FAIRLY PRICED if the forward P/E expands above about 25.9x (0.90x the current peer median of 28.76x) without growth accelerating, or if revenue growth falls below +5% year over year. The UNDERVALUED label strengthens if revenue growth holds at or above +20% year over year while the forward P/E stays at or below 23.03x.
Applied Materials makes the machines used to manufacture computer chips, and business is growing fast — sales were up about 25% on a year ago. Its shares cost about 23 times expected profits, noticeably less than the roughly 29 times charged for similar companies. On these numbers the shares look cheaper than they should be for a business growing this quickly.
Both lines start at 100 on 2020-09-01. Over the full window Applied Materials returned +539.73% and the S&P 500 +118.28% (price returns; dividends not reinvested). Worst peak-to-trough fall for Applied Materials: -55.4% (2022-01-14 to 2022-10-17). Source: Nasdaq official daily history.
What the label rests on
Forward P/E is 23.03x against a peer median of 28.76x, a ratio of 0.80x, and the trailing P/E is 35.0x. Latest-quarter revenue growth was +24.8% year over year (PRIMARY/EDGAR), matching the cluster median, and the PEG ratio of 0.73 is below 1, so the discount is not explained by weak growth. Delivered demand check: the cluster's median revenue growth was +24.8% year over year — demand rising. The company’s forward P/E is 23.0× against a peer median of 28.8×. Its own history: UNVERIFIED — no sourced range available. Sector demand read: Delivered demand check: the Semiconductor equipment & materials group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was +24.8% year over year (SEC filings) — demand rising. Latest-quarter sales growth was +24.8% versus a year earlier (SEC filings).
| Company | Price (Oct 28, 2026) | Forward P/E | Trailing P/E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Applied Materials (AMAT) | $405.78 | 23.0× | 35.0× |
| LRCX | $248.30 | 24.1× | 37.0× |
| KLAC | $157.21 | 28.8× | 43.0× |
| TER | $323.68 | 31.2× | 37.1× |
| Q | $118.75 | — | — |
| Peer median | 28.8× |
Multiples: stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026. Peer set chosen by sector; the median is the middle value of the set. The label and its numbers were recorded in the programme’s label registry on Oct 28, 2026 and will be scored at 6 and 12 months.
Sales, profit and cash
Gross margin = gross profit divided by sales, from SEC filings.
Free cash flow = cash from operations minus spending on plant and equipment, both from the company’s SEC cash-flow statement. Gaps are quarters where that spending line is not separately tagged in the filings — shown as gaps, never estimated.
| Quarter | Sales | Gross margin | Net income | EPS (GAAP, diluted) | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q/E Jul 2026 2026-07-26 | $9.1B | 50.3% | $2.5B | 3.17 | $2.3B |
| Q/E Apr 2026 2026-04-26 | $7.9B | 49.9% | $2.8B | 3.51 | $210M |
| Q/E Jan 2026 2026-01-25 | $7.0B | 49.0% | $2.0B | 2.54 | $1.0B |
| Q/E Oct 2025 2025-10-26 | $6.8B | 48.0% | $1.9B | — | $2.0B |
| Q/E Jul 2025 2025-07-27 | $7.3B | 48.8% | $1.8B | 2.22 | $2.0B |
| Q/E Apr 2025 2025-04-27 | $7.1B | 49.1% | $2.1B | 2.63 | $1.1B |
| Q/E Jan 2025 2025-01-26 | $7.2B | 48.8% | $1.2B | 1.45 | $544M |
| Q/E Oct 2024 2024-10-27 | $7.0B | 47.3% | $1.7B | — | $2.2B |
| Q/E Jul 2024 2024-07-28 | $6.8B | 47.3% | $1.7B | 2.05 | $2.1B |
| Q/E Apr 2024 2024-04-28 | $6.6B | 47.4% | $1.7B | 2.06 | $1.1B |
| Q/E Jan 2024 2024-01-28 | $6.7B | 47.8% | $2.0B | 2.41 | $2.1B |
| Q/E Oct 2023 2023-10-29 | $6.7B | 47.1% | $2.0B | — | $1.2B |
The last twelve reported quarters. Full 24-quarter history sits in the data pack behind this page. A dash means the figure is not tagged as a standalone quarter in the company’s SEC facts (the usual case is the fourth quarter, which many companies only report inside the full-year filing) — it is missing, not zero.
Earnings: getting better or worse?
Each box is one quarter’s earnings per share (EPS). Green means EPS was higher than the same quarter a year earlier; red means lower; a dash means the figure is not tagged in the filings.
Basis: GAAP diluted EPS from SEC company facts, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
Key facts
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Company (legal name in filings) | APPLIED MATERIALS INC /DE |
| Chief executive | Gary Dickerson (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applied_Materials) |
| Sector | Technology — Semiconductor Materials & Equipment — sells wafer-fabrication equipment and related services used to make chips |
| Share price (Oct 28, 2026) | $405.78 |
| Market value (market cap) | $314.2B — share price times shares outstanding of 793,597,443 (SEC filings; SEC EDGAR dei EntityCommonStockSharesOutstanding (latest)) |
| Sales, last twelve months | $30.8B |
| Net income, last twelve months | $9.3B |
| Free cash flow, last twelve months | $5.6B |
| Latest reported quarter | Q/E Jul 2026 (of 24 quarters in the data pack) |
| Six-year price return vs S&P 500 | +539.73% vs +118.28% |
| Worst peak-to-trough fall | -55.4% (2022-01-14 to 2022-10-17) |
What we could not verify
- TTM GAAP diluted EPS could not be summed from company facts because at least one of the last four quarters (typically Q4) has no standalone tagged EPS; trailing P/E is therefore taken from the labelled secondary source in valuation_label.md.
- Own-history P/E range not yet compiled for this company in the Phase 1 batch run; the label rests on peer-median, growth and PEG evidence.
- Peer set in the brief contains only three peers with multiples (LRCX, KLAC, TER); the fourth listed peer, Q, has null forward and trailing P/E in the brief, so the peer median of 28.76x rests on three priced peers.
- Guidance record (each quarter scored against the guidance the company gave the quarter before) is not yet compiled for this company — it is a Phase 2 layer. The earnings strip below therefore uses reported EPS versus a year earlier, which is fully sourced from filings.
The IT factor — the most exciting thing the market is overlooking — is not assessed on an X-Ray page. It belongs to the Deep Dive (Phase 2), where it gets the evidence standard it needs. Leadership-era scoring (the six years split by chief executive) is likewise a Phase 2 layer; this page names the current chief executive only, from a sourced profile.
Sources
- SEC EDGAR submissions — Filing index; company legal name.
https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0000006951.json - SEC EDGAR company facts — Quarterly financial spine: revenue, gross profit, net income, GAAP diluted EPS, operating cash flow, PP&E capex, buybacks, dividends, diluted shares.
https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0000006951.json - Nasdaq official daily history — Daily closes for the company; SPY (assetclass=etf) saved as raw/nasdaq_spy_raw.json over identical dates.
https://api.nasdaq.com/api/quote/AMAT/historical?assetclass=stocks - Valuation multiples and peer figures — stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026; see valuation_label.md in the data pack.
Conventions: earliest-filed value per period, as first reported; cash-flow years-to-date differenced quarter by quarter; EPS never differenced; free cash flow = operating cash flow minus plant-and-equipment spending. This page is a dated snapshot — updates are new versions, never silent edits.