Applied Materials Falls Slightly After Q4 Earnings Beat

Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT) has beaten its Q4 EPS estimate by a penny, but a few investors have still decided to exit their positions.

The company reported a fourth quarter EPS of $0.19 versus the Street estimate of $0.18.

Earnings per share were up 217 percent from the year-ago period.

Revenue came in at $1.99 billion. versus the identical Street estimate of $1.99 billion. Sales were up 21 percent year-over-year.

"This has been a transformative year for Applied Materials as we shaped a more competitive company, reduced overhead expenses, stepped up investment in product development and built momentum for profitable growth," Gary Dickerson, President and Chief Executive Officer, said in a company release.

"As we look ahead to 2014, we expect stronger investment by our semiconductor and display customers and major technology inflections in transistor and memory that play to our strengths."

Applied Materials expects to a report Q1 EPS within the $0.20 to $0.24 range. Wall Street leaned toward the higher end of that estimate and expects $0.23. This could explain why some investors are getting out of the stock.

Overall, the company has performed pretty well this year. Applied Materials has risen nearly 50 percent since January 1. The company has had a few setbacks, but most of them were minor and merely kept the stock at bay until the next spike.

During the last 12 months, Applied Materials has gained more than 70 percent.

Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Louis Bedigian had no position in the equities mentioned in this report.

Louis Bedigian is the Senior Tech Analyst and Features Writer of Benzinga. You can reach him at louis(at)benzingapro(dot)com. Follow him @LouisBedigianBZ