Stifel Nicolaus Maintains Buy on Applied Materials

Stifel Nicolaus is out with its report today on Applied Materials AMAT, maintaining Buy. In a note to clients, Stifel Nicolaus writes, "We believe the current market uncertainty and some of the internal challenges within Applied have kept the stock behind many of its peers. Should the company execute and continue to gain share, we believe there is the opportunity for greater upside to the stock. We maintain our Buy rating and our $18 target price, based on 11x our CY11E pro-forma EPS of $1.63, excluding options." Shares of AMAT closed Wednesday at $13.04.