Applied Materials, Inc. vs ProShares UltraPro Short QQQ ETF — how do they compare? Applied Materials, Inc. trades at $584.6 (market cap $478.36B), while ProShares UltraPro Short QQQ ETF trades at $39.06. The key difference: Applied Materials, Inc. pays a 0.35% dividend while ProShares UltraPro Short QQQ ETF pays none, and Applied Materials, Inc. is trading nearer its 52-week high, ProShares UltraPro Short QQQ ETF nearer its low. Which is the better fit depends on your goals.
| AMAT | SQQQ | |
|---|---|---|
Market Cap | $478.36B | — |
Sector | Technology | Leveraged / Inverse |
52-Week High | $723.00 | $97.60 |
52-Week Low | $156.25 | $36.31 |
Enterprise Value | $477.39B | — |
Dividend Yield | 0.35% | — |
Signals from Pluang's Aura AI — not financial advice
Applied Materials (AMAT) trades at $602.50, up 2.35% recently, with strong technical support near $573 and resistance at $617. The company demonstrates robust fundamentals, including a 29.31% net income margin and consistent earnings beats, while benefiting from AI-driven semiconductor demand highlighted in recent CEO commentary (CNBC, 2026-05-28).
Outlook remains positive given analyst consensus of $644.33 price target and 76.9% buy ratings, though elevated P/E of 56.68 poses valuation risk. Key opportunities include AI infrastructure growth, while risks involve cyclical semiconductor demand and execution challenges in scaling operations.
SQQQ trades at $37.78, down 0.84% on the day, with a bearish technical signal driven by moving averages. The ETF, designed to deliver -3x the daily return of the Nasdaq-100, faces structural decay from daily resets, evidenced by long-term value erosion. Recent news highlights its role as a tactical hedge rather than a long-term holding, with short interest rising 19.4% in March 2026 (Defense World, 2026-04-19).
Outlook remains highly speculative; SQQQ offers potential for short-term gains during Nasdaq declines but carries extreme risk from volatility decay. Investors must actively manage positions due to the ETF's unsuitability for buy-and-hold strategies, with success dependent on precise market timing amid bearish analyst sentiment.
Trailing returns across standard periods
Latest headlines on both assets
Applied Materials is the world's largest supplier of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, providing materials engineering solutions to help make nearly every chip in the world. The firm's systems are used in nearly every major process step with the exception of lithography. Key tools include those for chemical and physical vapor deposition, etching, chemical mechanical polishing, wafer- and reticle-inspection, critical dimension measurement, and defect-inspection scanning electron microscopes.
Read more on AMAT →SQQQ is a leveraged inverse ETF that seeks daily investment results, before fees and expenses, that correspond to three times the inverse (-3x) of the daily performance of the Nasdaq-100 Index. It is a tactical trading tool designed for sophisticated investors to profit from or hedge against declines in large-cap technology and growth stocks. Due to its daily reset and the effects of compounding, it is intended for short-term use and carries significant risk if held during periods of high market volatility.
Read more on SQQQ →