Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT) shares had a bit of a morning drama on Friday—down early, then bouncing back—after the semiconductor equipment maker delivered upbeat fiscal fourth-quarter results on Thursday. The recovery caught the attention of Wall Street analysts who wasted no time updating their targets.

What the Analysts Are Saying

JPMorgan analyst Harlan Sur reaffirmed his Overweight rating and raised his price target from $220 to $260. Needham analyst Charles Shi maintained a Buy rating with a $260 price target. Goldman Sachs analyst James Schneider reiterated his Buy rating with a $250 target.

JPMorgan's Take: Momentum Building

Sur described the results and guidance as "solid," reflecting continued momentum in the company's areas of strength. He expects China-related headwinds to ease going forward, which should provide some relief.

The analyst believes Applied Materials will at least grow in line with wafer fabrication equipment (WFE) growth in 2026, with accelerated growth beyond that. The advanced packaging business looks particularly promising. "Poised for a resumption in growth, particularly given AMAT's #1 position in HBM where we expect spending to inflect higher," Sur wrote, referring to high-bandwidth memory.

Needham: Sequential Decline, But Context Matters

Shi noted that revenue contracted 7% sequentially to $6.8 billion but still came in above the midpoint of guidance. The decline reflected weakness in foundry/logic and NAND within the Semi Systems segment, though DRAM showed incremental strength during the quarter.

For the fiscal first quarter, Applied Materials guided to revenue of $6.85 billion. Management suggested revenue will likely remain at current levels before recovering in the back half of 2026—a timeline that mirrors recent comments from Lam Research and KLA, Shi added.

Goldman Sachs: Beating Expectations

Schneider highlighted that Applied Materials reported revenue of $6.80 billion, above the consensus estimate of $6.65 billion, with non-GAAP earnings of $2.17 per share beating Street expectations of $2.09 per share. While the results exceeded expectations, the company's guidance came in line with what analysts were expecting.

Management guided to fiscal first-quarter revenue of $6.85 billion and non-GAAP earnings of $1.98 to $2.38 per share. The company believes it's better positioned to capture market growth in the coming year, according to Schneider. "The company believes it is better positioned to capture market growth in the coming year, as it sees leading-edge logic, DRAM, and packaging to be among the fastest-growing market segments in CY26, areas where Applied has a stronger market share," he wrote.

Shares of Applied Materials were up 0.39% to $224.09 at the time of publication on Friday.