Gulf International Bank UK Ltd Cuts Holdings in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME)

Gulf International Bank UK Ltd trimmed its position in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) by 0.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 18,041 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 173 shares during the period. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd’s holdings in AMETEK were worth $3,252,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new stake in shares of AMETEK during the 3rd quarter worth $3,724,000. Everence Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in AMETEK in the fourth quarter valued at about $999,000. Czech National Bank grew its position in shares of AMETEK by 6.3% during the 4th quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 50,153 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $9,041,000 after acquiring an additional 2,987 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its stake in shares of AMETEK by 23.2% during the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 355,828 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $61,099,000 after purchasing an additional 67,025 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Taurus Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of AMETEK by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Taurus Asset Management LLC now owns 115,033 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $19,752,000 after purchasing an additional 3,210 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 87.43% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AME has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. BNP Paribas raised AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on AMETEK from $221.00 to $222.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of AMETEK from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of AMETEK from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $204.67.

AMETEK Price Performance

AME stock opened at $187.27 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $183.13 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $178.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.58, a PEG 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.

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

AMETEK declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Friday, February 7th that permits the company to buyback $1.25 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the technology company to reacquire up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

AMETEK Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.31 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from AMETEK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.66%. AMETEK’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 18.89%.

About AMETEK

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.