Lake Street Advisors Group LLC Buys 138 Shares of AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME)

Lake Street Advisors Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) by 8.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,826 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 138 shares during the quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC’s holdings in AMETEK were worth $329,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AME. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new stake in AMETEK during the third quarter worth about $3,724,000. Everence Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in AMETEK in the 4th quarter worth approximately $999,000. Czech National Bank boosted its stake in AMETEK by 6.3% in the fourth quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 50,153 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $9,041,000 after buying an additional 2,987 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its position in AMETEK by 23.2% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 355,828 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $61,099,000 after acquiring an additional 67,025 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Taurus Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of AMETEK by 2.9% during the third quarter. Taurus Asset Management LLC now owns 115,033 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $19,752,000 after acquiring an additional 3,210 shares in the last quarter. 87.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AMETEK Price Performance

Shares of AME stock opened at $187.27 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 1.24. AMETEK, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $149.03 and a fifty-two week high of $198.33. The firm has a market cap of $43.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.16. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $183.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $178.87.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $1.87 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 analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. AMETEK had a return on equity of 16.94% and a net margin of 19.83%. The firm’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.68 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that AMETEK, Inc. will post 7.15 earnings per share for the current year.

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 given a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.66%. This is a boost from AMETEK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. AMETEK’s payout ratio is currently 18.89%.

AMETEK announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AME has been the subject of a number of research reports. 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 upgraded 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 research report on Monday, December 16th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on AMETEK from $200.00 to $197.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Mizuho increased their target price on AMETEK from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their price target on AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One investment 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus 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.