Morgan Stanley has upgraded its shares in Applied Materials and is confident in its semiconductor Wafer Fab Equipment Market, saying its base case is approaching the investment bank’s bull case. The chip equipment maker rose more than 1% on Monday after Morgan Stanley hiked investment opinions from equal weight to overweight. Applied Materials rose more than 16% a year, surpassing the S&P 500. “Over the past few weeks, memory pricing trends have clearly improved, and we believe that memory Capex expectations for 2026/2027 are distorted upside down,” Morgan Stanley said. AMAT YTD Mountain Applied Materials Year To Turet Morgan Stanley raised its 12-month price target for applied materials from nearly 22% to $172 to $209, with its closing price on Friday up 10% from $190.10. The bank noted that the applied materials are traded at a large discount to rival LAM research. “AMAT is currently trading at a 25% discount on the average 10% average since 2023, and the new PT implies a 15% discount,” Morgan Stanley said. “3:1 Bull: Bear Skew, the most leverage of Greenfield Drums in our coverage, and in view that China, ICAPS, and cutting-edge logic have been dismantled, I think risk rewards are distorted upside down.”
