Applied Materials Jumps on Stellar Q1 Earnings

Shares of Applied Materials AMAT are trading higher in the after-hours following the release of the company's Q1 earnings results. Currently, shares are higher by 4.09%, trading at $13.75; they ended the regular session higher by 2.40%, at $13.21. Applied Materials reported Q1 non-GAAP EPS of $0.18 (GAAP $0.09) on revenues of $2.19 billion. Q1 orders came in at $2.01 billion. "Global demand for mobile devices is driving a third consecutive year of strong capital investment by semiconductor customers," said Mike Splinter, chairman and chief executive officer. "As a result, we see solid order momentum and an improved outlook overall for our second quarter." During the quarter, Varian generated orders of approximately $270 million and net sales of approximately $200 million which were reported within the Silicon Systems Group (SSG) and the Applied Global Services (AGS) segments. The Varian business contributed approximately $0.01 to the company's non-GAAP EPS, which excludes acquisition-related charges equivalent to approximately $0.09 per share. The company sees Q2 EPS in the range of $0.20-0.28. Applied Materials, Inc. provides manufacturing equipment, services and software to the global semiconductor, flat panel display, solar photovoltaic and related industries.