AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) Director Sells $250,021.20 in Stock

AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) Director Steven W. Kohlhagen sold 1,320 shares of AMETEK stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.41, for a total transaction of $250,021.20. Following the sale, the director now owns 22,029 shares in the company, valued at $4,172,512.89. This represents a 5.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website.

AMETEK Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE AME opened at $185.07 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. AMETEK, Inc. has a 52 week low of $149.03 and a 52 week high of $198.33. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $183.34 and a 200 day moving average price of $179.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.14.

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

AMETEK Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. This is a boost from AMETEK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. AMETEK’s payout ratio is presently 20.91%.

AMETEK declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Friday, February 7th that allows the company to buyback $1.25 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the technology company to buy up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AMETEK

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AME. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of AMETEK by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,147,772 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,713,397,000 after buying an additional 282,208 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of AMETEK by 0.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,220,376 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,583,231,000 after buying an additional 24,072 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of AMETEK by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 8,956,329 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,614,468,000 after buying an additional 98,546 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in AMETEK by 3.7% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,985,350 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,199,454,000 after purchasing an additional 250,538 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors grew its holdings in AMETEK by 70.0% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 5,760,017 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,038,301,000 after purchasing an additional 2,371,062 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.43% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on AME. Bank of America upgraded shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $195.00 to $225.00 in a research note on Monday, December 16th. BNP Paribas raised shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of AMETEK from $221.00 to $222.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of AMETEK from $200.00 to $197.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AMETEK has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.67.

AMETEK Company 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.