AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) Shares Sold by Amundi

Amundi trimmed its stake in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) by 1.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 858,026 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 16,171 shares during the quarter. Amundi’s holdings in AMETEK were worth $153,115,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. HM Payson & Co. raised its stake in AMETEK by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. HM Payson & Co. now owns 530,360 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $95,603,000 after purchasing an additional 3,528 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of AMETEK by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 199,631 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $35,986,000 after buying an additional 2,868 shares in the last quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich raised its position in shares of AMETEK by 9.6% in the fourth quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 1,023,724 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $197,589,000 after buying an additional 89,265 shares during the last quarter. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AMETEK by 17.1% during the fourth quarter. Vestmark Advisory Solutions Inc. now owns 6,115 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,102,000 after buying an additional 891 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in AMETEK during the fourth quarter worth approximately $64,562,000. 87.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on AME. KeyCorp increased 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. Bank of America raised 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. 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. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of AMETEK from $200.00 to $197.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, BNP Paribas raised shares of 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, AMETEK has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.67.

AMETEK Price Performance

AME opened at $179.38 on Tuesday. 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, Inc. has a 52-week low of $149.03 and a 52-week high of $198.33. The company has a 50 day moving average of $183.35 and a two-hundred day moving average of $180.13. The company has a market cap of $41.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.14.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $1.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.82 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.68 earnings per share. AMETEK’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that AMETEK, Inc. will post 7.15 earnings per share for the current year.

AMETEK Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.31 per share. This is an increase from AMETEK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. AMETEK’s payout ratio is currently 20.91%.

AMETEK declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Friday, February 7th that permits the company to repurchase $1.25 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the technology company to repurchase up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Steven W. Kohlhagen sold 1,320 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 in the company, valued at approximately $4,172,512.89. This represents a 5.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.