AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) Position Raised by Atria Investments Inc

Atria Investments Inc grew its position in shares of AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) by 1.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 8,063 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 125 shares during the quarter. Atria Investments Inc’s holdings in AMETEK were worth $1,453,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in AMETEK by 72.0% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,680,309 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $288,526,000 after purchasing an additional 703,501 shares in the last quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of AMETEK in the 3rd quarter worth $248,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AMETEK in the third quarter valued at $114,000. Wolverine Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in AMETEK by 44.4% during the third quarter. Wolverine Asset Management LLC now owns 6,500 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,116,000 after buying an additional 2,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its stake in AMETEK by 1.1% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 506,696 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $87,005,000 after buying an additional 5,375 shares in the last quarter. 87.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on AME shares. Bank of America raised shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $195.00 to $225.00 in a report on Monday, December 16th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 16th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of AMETEK from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday. Truist Financial lifted their price target 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. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price objective on AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.67.

AMETEK Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AME opened at $179.16 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $183.33 and its two-hundred day moving average is $180.21. The company has a market cap of $41.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.14. AMETEK, Inc. has a 12-month low of $149.03 and a 12-month high of $198.33. 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 (NYSE:AME) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.02. AMETEK had a return on equity of 16.94% and a net margin of 19.83%. The firm had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.68 earnings per share. AMETEK’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that AMETEK, Inc. will post 7.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AMETEK Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.69%. This is a positive change from AMETEK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. AMETEK’s dividend payout ratio is 20.91%.

AMETEK announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Friday, February 7th that permits the company to buyback $1.25 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the technology company to repurchase up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Steven W. Kohlhagen sold 1,320 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 22,029 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,172,512.89. This trade represents a 5.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.