Munger Mode rating: 3 out of 5 — Hold. Our own rating from the research report below, on business quality first: moat durability and management, with price separating the top three.
A wonderful business at a premium price. The moat is real, the management is excellent, and the market has already paid itself for the next several years of growth. We would hold what we owned; we would not initiate here. Applied Materials sells the machines that make semiconductors. When TSMC, Samsung, Intel, Micron, or SK Hynix builds a fabrication plant, they fill it with several billion dollars of equipment — tools that deposit atomically thin films on silicon wafers, etch patterns into them, implant ions, polish surfaces flat, and inspect the results. Applied is the largest and broadest supplier of this equipment in the world.
Recent filings analysed: 8-K (2026-08-27), 10-Q (2026-08-20), 8-K (2026-08-13), 10-Q (2026-05-21).
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