AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) Shares Purchased by LGT Fund Management Co Ltd.

LGT Fund Management Co Ltd. boosted its holdings in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) by 25.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 28,095 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 5,781 shares during the quarter. LGT Fund Management Co Ltd.’s holdings in AMETEK were worth $5,064,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. grew its position in AMETEK by 62.6% during the third quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 200 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its position in AMETEK by 3,116.7% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 193 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 187 shares during the period. AdvisorNet Financial Inc grew its position in AMETEK by 1,176.5% during the fourth quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 217 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $39,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its position in AMETEK by 42.9% during the fourth quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 233 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the period. Finally, Princeton Global Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in AMETEK during the third quarter valued at about $44,000. 87.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. BNP Paribas raised AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on AMETEK from $200.00 to $197.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com downgraded AMETEK from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Bank of America raised AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $195.00 to $225.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, KeyCorp upped their target price on AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AMETEK presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $204.67.

AMETEK Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of AME opened at $189.18 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $43.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.90, a P/E/G ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.16. AMETEK, Inc. has a one year low of $149.03 and a one year high of $198.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 1.24. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $183.25 and a 200 day moving average price of $179.31.

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

AMETEK Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors 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 represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.66%. This is an increase from AMETEK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. AMETEK’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.91%.

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

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.