TD Private Client Wealth LLC Lowers Stock Holdings in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME)

TD Private Client Wealth LLC reduced its position in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) by 93.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 770 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 10,159 shares during the quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC’s holdings in AMETEK were worth $139,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of AMETEK by 72.0% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,680,309 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $288,526,000 after purchasing an additional 703,501 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its position in AMETEK by 276.9% during the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,990 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $342,000 after buying an additional 1,462 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC grew its position in AMETEK by 60.0% during the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 108,341 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $18,603,000 after buying an additional 40,616 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB increased its stake in AMETEK by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 70,517 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $12,108,000 after acquiring an additional 2,659 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AMETEK by 30.9% in the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 53,849 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $9,247,000 after acquiring an additional 12,718 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.43% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Truist Financial increased their price target on shares of AMETEK from $221.00 to $222.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of AMETEK from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, March 9th. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of AMETEK from $200.00 to $197.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $195.00 to $225.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, AMETEK has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $204.67.

AMETEK Stock Performance

NYSE AME opened at $179.69 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $182.98 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $180.83. AMETEK, Inc. has a 12-month low of $149.03 and a 12-month high of $198.33. The firm has a market cap of $41.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.30, a PEG 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.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) last issued its 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. The company had revenue of $1.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.82 billion. AMETEK had a return on equity of 16.94% and a net margin of 19.83%. AMETEK’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.68 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that AMETEK, Inc. will post 7.15 EPS for the current year.

AMETEK Increases Dividend

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

AMETEK declared 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 purchase up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at AMETEK

In related news, Director Steven W. Kohlhagen sold 1,320 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the director now owns 22,029 shares in the company, valued at $4,172,512.89. This 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 available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.61% 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.