Applied Materials Craters on Q4 Outlook

Shares of Applied Materials AMAT are trading lower in the after-hours following the release of the company's Q3 earnings results. Currently, shares are lower by 4.93%, trading at $10.80; they ended the regular session lower by 0.70%, at $11.36. Applied Materials reported Q3 EPS of $0.35 on revenues of $2.79 billion; the Street was looking for $0.33 per share on revenues of $2.68 billion. Revenues decreased 2.4% year over year. The company issued downside guidance, saying it sees Q4 EPS in the range of $0.16-0.24 on revenues that will be down 15-30%, sequentially. This equates to a revenue range of $1.95-2.37 billion; the Street was looking for $2.55 billion. Applied Materials, Inc. provides manufacturing equipment, services and software to the global semiconductor, flat panel display, solar photovoltaic and related industries. Applied's customers include manufacturers of semiconductor wafers and chips, flat panel liquid crystal displays, solar PV cells and modules, and other electronic devices.