Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) dropped its fiscal fourth-quarter report after the bell on Thursday, and the numbers were a bit of a mixed bag. The chip equipment maker missed on both the top and bottom lines, but its forward guidance came in ahead of what Wall Street was looking for. Because nothing says "AI boom" quite like a company missing estimates and still raising the bar for next quarter.

Applied Materials Q4 Highlights

Revenue for the quarter landed at $10.41 billion, short of the $10.89 billion analysts were expecting, according to MarketDash Pro. Adjusted earnings came in at $4.16 per share, also below the $4.26 consensus estimate.

Here's the thing, though: total revenue was still up 53% year-over-year. That's not exactly a company struggling to find customers. Gross margin came in at 50.4% for the quarter, or 50.6% on an adjusted basis. Applied Materials generated $3.30 billion in cash from operations and handed $2.42 billion back to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends. The company ended the quarter with roughly $7.24 billion in cash and cash equivalents.

CEO Gary Dickerson didn't sound like a guy worried about a miss. "AI continues to fuel strong incremental demand for semiconductors and Applied has built the most enabling portfolio to advance the AI-computing roadmap, putting us in a great position for multi-year revenue and profit growth," he said.

Guidance Points Higher

For the first quarter, Applied Materials guided revenue of $11.1 billion, plus or minus $500 million, comfortably above the $10.89 billion analysts were modeling. Adjusted earnings are expected to land between $4.15 and $4.55 per share, versus the $4.26 consensus.

So the quarter itself was a slight miss, but the outlook suggests the demand picture isn't cooling off anytime soon. Management will break down the quarter further on an earnings call at 4:30 p.m. ET.

AMAT Stock Moves After Hours

Applied Materials shares were down 0.33% in after-hours trading at $379.67 at the time of publication on Thursday, according to MarketDash Pro. The stock traded as high as $389 after hours before pulling back, which tells you investors weren't quite sure what to make of the report at first glance.