AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have issued a hold recommendation, seven have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $201.78.

A number of brokerages have issued reports on AME. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on shares of AMETEK from $216.00 to $196.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on AMETEK from $200.00 to $197.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. 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 downgraded AMETEK from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $195.00 to $225.00 in a research note on Monday, December 16th.

Insider Buying and Selling at AMETEK

In other AMETEK news, Director Thomas A. Amato sold 710 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.64, for a total transaction of $125,414.40. Following the transaction, the director now owns 10,560 shares in the company, valued at $1,865,318.40. This represents a 6.30 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Steven W. Kohlhagen sold 1,320 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.41, for a total value of $250,021.20. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 22,029 shares in the company, valued at $4,172,512.89. This represents a 5.65 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AME. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new position in shares of AMETEK in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $3,724,000. Everence Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of AMETEK during the fourth quarter worth about $999,000. Czech National Bank raised its holdings in AMETEK by 6.3% in the 4th quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 50,153 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $9,041,000 after buying an additional 2,987 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in AMETEK by 434.5% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 541,517 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $97,614,000 after buying an additional 440,197 shares during the period. Finally, Dudley & Shanley Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of AMETEK by 11.3% during the third quarter. Dudley & Shanley Inc. now owns 139,434 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $23,942,000 after purchasing an additional 14,105 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.43% of the company’s stock.

AMETEK Stock Down 2.2 %

Shares of NYSE:AME opened at $157.39 on Friday. AMETEK has a 12 month low of $145.02 and a 12 month high of $198.33. The firm has a market cap of $36.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.54, a P/E/G ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a quick ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $177.16 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $180.18.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $1.87 earnings per share 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 the consensus estimate of $1.82 billion. AMETEK had a return on equity of 16.94% and a net margin of 19.83%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.68 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that AMETEK will post 7.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AMETEK announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Friday, February 7th that allows the company to repurchase $1.25 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the technology company to buy up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

AMETEK Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.79%. This is a boost from AMETEK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. AMETEK’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.91%.

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.