Stifel analyst Brian Chin raised its price target on Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) to $140 from $132 and maintained a buy rating after the company reported fiscal first-quarter earnings slightly above expectations, though a “surprising update” was that the company’s inventories were growing again month-over-month. Analysts believe that the company’s exposure to lagging WFE technology is significantly higher than average, which neither the company nor the industry has noticed, meaning that “the largest semiconductor company is expected to easily outperform the entire industry this year.”