TLDR
- Barclays reaffirmed an Overweight rating on Applied Materials (AMAT) and lifted its price target to $590 from $500
- AMAT rose 4.7% in premarket trading Thursday to $520.15
- Barclays raised its total wafer fab equipment market estimate to $154 billion, with 36% growth expected in 2027
- Multiple analysts including Evercore ISI, TD Cowen, Bernstein, and Deutsche Bank all hold Buy ratings on AMAT
- Applied Materials opened a $500 million manufacturing campus in Singapore, more than doubling its cleanroom capacity there
Applied Materials (AMAT) has had a strong run in 2026, and Wall Street isn’t done raising its targets just yet.
Barclays reaffirmed its Overweight rating on AMAT on Thursday and raised its price target to $590 from $500. The stock rose 4.7% in premarket trading to $520.15. It’s now up more than 75% year-to-date.
The upgrade comes as Barclays analyst Tom O’Malley pointed to a stronger-than-expected capital expenditure cycle across the board, driven by AI infrastructure buildout. “The capex cycle is much stronger across the board,” O’Malley wrote.
Barclays also lifted its estimate for the total wafer fab equipment market to $154 billion, up from a prior forecast of $139 billion. The firm then expects the market to grow another 36% to $209.5 billion in 2027.
Fellow equipment makers KLA Corp (KLAC) and Lam Research (LRCX) also got a boost. KLA’s target was lifted to $2,250 from $1,700. Lam Research, rated Neutral, saw its target raised to $335 from $275. Both stocks were up in premarket trading.
Analyst Consensus Builds
The bullish tone on AMAT isn’t new. On June 4, Evercore ISI analyst Mark Lipacis reiterated a Buy rating and set a $515 target. TD Cowen and Bernstein also reaffirmed Buy ratings in the first week of June, with Bernstein carrying the highest target at $525.
In May, Deutsche Bank raised its target from $450 to $550 and kept its Buy rating. The bank now expects Applied Materials’ semiconductor business to grow more than 30% year-over-year in 2026.
That followed a strong Q2 2026 earnings report on May 14. AMAT posted revenue of $7.91 billion, up 11% year-over-year. EPS came in at $2.86, topping the Wall Street consensus of $2.68.
On the demand side, memory investments from Micron Technology (MU), SK Hynix, and Samsung are driving major growth. AI chip capacity expansions from TSMC and Intel (INTC) are also adding fuel.
$500 Million Singapore Campus Now Open
Applied Materials recently opened its new Tampines Campus in Singapore, a $500 million facility that more than doubles the company’s cleanroom capacity in the country. The campus is already running at volume production.
The expansion is part of Applied’s Singapore 2030 plan and is built around serving chipmakers scaling up to meet AI-driven demand. The company expects to add around 1,000 local jobs over the next few years.
The campus uses autonomous mobile robots, AI-assisted quality inspection, and augmented reality tools for technician training.
CEO Gary Dickerson said the Singapore expansion would help Applied deliver semiconductor manufacturing equipment “that chipmakers need to bring next-generation chips to market faster.”
Applied Materials has nearly doubled its global manufacturing capacity over the past several years. It has also invested more than $400 million in US manufacturing infrastructure over the past five years.
The company’s $5 billion EPIC Center in Silicon Valley is set to become operational later this year.
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