Colonial River Investments LLC Acquires 271 Shares of AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME)

Colonial River Investments LLC boosted its holdings in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) by 18.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,715 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 271 shares during the quarter. Colonial River Investments LLC’s holdings in AMETEK were worth $309,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp lifted its position in AMETEK by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,220,376 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,583,231,000 after acquiring an additional 24,072 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in AMETEK by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,985,350 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,199,454,000 after acquiring an additional 250,538 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in AMETEK by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,401,656 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $924,308,000 after acquiring an additional 45,459 shares in the last quarter. Flossbach Von Storch SE lifted its position in AMETEK by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Flossbach Von Storch SE now owns 3,724,352 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $671,352,000 after acquiring an additional 91,287 shares in the last quarter. Finally, EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. lifted its position in AMETEK by 87.9% in the 3rd quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 1,964,236 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $337,279,000 after acquiring an additional 918,737 shares in the last quarter. 87.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

AMETEK Trading Down 0.2 %

AMETEK stock opened at $185.76 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $42.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.33, a P/E/G ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.16. AMETEK, Inc. has a 12-month low of $149.03 and a 12-month high of $198.33. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $182.88 and a 200 day moving average of $178.55. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.02. AMETEK had a net margin of 19.83% and a return on equity of 16.94%. The firm had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.82 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.68 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that AMETEK, Inc. will post 7.15 earnings per share for the current year.

AMETEK declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Friday, February 7th that allows the company to repurchase $1.25 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the technology company to repurchase up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

AMETEK Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.31 dividend. This is a positive change from AMETEK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.67%. AMETEK’s dividend payout ratio is 18.89%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on AME shares. Bank of America raised AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $195.00 to $225.00 in a report on Monday, December 16th. Mizuho increased their price target on AMETEK from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. BNP Paribas raised AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 16th. StockNews.com raised AMETEK from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price target on AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, AMETEK currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $204.67.

AMETEK Profile

AMETEK, Inc manufactures and sells electronic instruments and electromechanical devices in the North America, Europe, Asia, and South America, and internationally. The company's EIG segment offers advanced instruments for the process, aerospace, power, and industrial markets; process and analytical instruments for the oil and gas, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, semiconductor, automation, and food and beverage industries; instruments to the laboratory equipment, ultra-precision manufacturing, medical, and test and measurement markets; power quality monitoring and c devices, uninterruptible power supplies, programmable power and electromagnetic compatibility test equipment, and sensors for gas turbines and dashboard instruments; heavy trucks, instrumentation, and controls for the food and beverage industries; and aircraft and engine sensors, power supplies, embedded computing, monitoring, fuel and fluid measurement, and data acquisition systems for aerospace and defense industry.