If You Invested $1000 in Applied Materials a Decade Ago, This is How Much It'd Be Worth Now

For most investors, how much a stock's price changes over time is important. This factor can impact your investment portfolio as well as help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.FOMO, or the fear of missing out, also plays a role in investing, particularly with tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.What if you'd invested in Applied Materials (AMAT) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to AMAT for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?Applied Materials' Business In-DepthWith that in mind, let's take a look at Applied Materials' main business drivers.Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Applied Materials is a leading supplier of equipment used to manufacture semiconductor devices, flat panel displays and solar photovoltaic (PV) products. The company also provides deployment and support services for the tools it installs at customer fabs.Applied Materials currently reports results in three segments. Semiconductor Systems is the largest segment and includes equipment used in front-end semiconductor manufacturing, including the 200-millimeter equipment business, which was moved into Semiconductor Systems beginning in the first quarter of fiscal 2026. Applied Global Services provides spares, upgrades, service contracts and other productivity solutions that help customers improve uptime, output and yield across a large installed base. Other primarily includes the Display business and certain corporate activities.Applied Materials’ semiconductor equipment portfolio supports front-end operations in the chipmaking process. These steps involve the deposition or implantation of multiple thin layers of electronically conductive, semiconductive and insulating materials onto and within a silicon wafer, using photomasks (reticles) to create multiple copies of integrated circuit devices.With over 33,000 systems installed, Applied Global Services supports customers through a mix of parts, upgrades and service programs.Applied Materials has developed technologies for larger-sized wafers made of materials other than silicon. This has expanded its portfolio into equipment for the thin film transistor (TFT) LCDs (made from glass) and OLED, which are used in smartphones, TVs and other consumer electronic devices. The company operates this business under Display, which is included in the Other category.Being a leading producer of specialized equipment, most of the competition comes from other large equipment makers, such as KLAC and LRCX. Bottom LineAnyone can invest, but building a successful investment portfolio takes a combination of a few things: research, patience, and a little bit of risk. So, if you had invested in Applied Materials a decade ago, you're probably feeling pretty good about your investment today.According to our calculations, a $1000 investment made in June 2016 would be worth $25,353.85, or a gain of 2,435.39%, as of June 25, 2026, and this return excludes dividends but includes price increases.In comparison, the S&P 500's gained 261.16% and the price of gold went up 190.39% over the same time frame.Analysts are anticipating more upside for AMAT.Applied Materials is benefiting from AI-driven demand that is shifting wafer fabrication equipment spending toward leading-edge foundry-logic, DRAM and advanced packaging, where it holds leading process positions. In the second quarter of fiscal 2026, the company delivered record revenue and the highest gross margin in more than two decades, and management sees better multi-quarter visibility as customers share longer-range forecasts. New gate-all-around and packaging products, expanding EPIC collaborations, and a growing services attach rate support value-based pricing and operating leverage. Offsetting these positives are high China exposure amid changing export rules, the inherently cyclical nature of capital spending, and intense competition across process steps.The stock is up 31.39% over the past four weeks, and no earnings estimate has gone lower in the past two months, compared to 11 higher, for fiscal 2026. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.Beyond Nvidia: AI's Second Wave Is HereThe AI revolution has already minted millionaires. But the stocks everyone knows about aren't likely to keep delivering the biggest profits. AI’s second wave is moving from infrastructure to implementation and these companies are at the forefront of this transition, positioned to become what Amazon and Google were to the internet era.See Stocks Now >>This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).Zacks Investment ResearchWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks