Analysts Set AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) Target Price at $204.67

Shares of AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) have earned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have given a hold recommendation, seven have given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $204.67.

Several analysts have issued reports on AME shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of AMETEK from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, March 9th. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of AMETEK from $221.00 to $222.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. BNP Paribas raised shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Bank of America raised shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $195.00 to $225.00 in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd.

AMETEK Stock Performance

NYSE AME opened at $177.22 on Monday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $183.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $180.44. 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 has a 12-month low of $149.03 and a 12-month high of $198.33. The firm has a market cap of $40.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.89, a PEG ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.14.

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

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

AMETEK Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.31 dividend. This is an increase from AMETEK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. AMETEK’s dividend payout ratio is presently 20.91%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Steven W. Kohlhagen sold 1,320 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.41, for a total value of $250,021.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 22,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,172,512.89. This represents a 5.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AMETEK

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in AMETEK by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,147,772 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,713,397,000 after purchasing an additional 282,208 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in AMETEK by 0.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,220,376 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,583,231,000 after purchasing an additional 24,072 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its holdings in AMETEK by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 8,956,329 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,614,468,000 after purchasing an additional 98,546 shares during the period. 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 worth $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 worth $1,038,301,000 after purchasing an additional 2,371,062 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.43% of the company’s stock.

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.