Applied Materials Inc (NASDAQ:AMAT) shares are up 10.9% to trade at $364.01, and earlier hit a record high of $376.32, after the semiconductor firm posted better-than-expected quarterly results and strong guidance. Plus, profit jumped 70% to $2.03 billion -- attributed to rising artificial-intelligence computing demand -- and the company projected revenue between $7.15-$8.15 billion for the current quarter, well above estimates.
Analysts are reinforcing the bullish backdrop, with no fewer than 10 lifting their price targets. J.P Morgan raised its price target to $400 from $260, while reiterating an "overweight" rating, pointing to the company's strong track record of post-earnings performance.
On the charts, AMAT has steadily climbed since September's pullback, consistently finding support at its 60-day moving average. The stock is now up roughly 200% from its April lows and if today's gains stick, will notch its third win in the last five sessions.
An unwinding of pessimism could create additional tailwinds. This is per the the stock's 10-day put/call volume ratio of 1.40 over at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), which sits higher than 88% of annual readings.
What's more, AMAT's Schaeffer's Volatility Scorecard (SVS) sits at a relatively high 97, indicating that the stock has tended to exceed option traders' volatility expectations during the past year.
