Capital Investment Services of America Inc. Sells 175 Shares of AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME)

Capital Investment Services of America Inc. decreased its stake in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) by 0.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 23,809 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 175 shares during the period. Capital Investment Services of America Inc.’s holdings in AMETEK were worth $4,292,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Czech National Bank raised its stake in shares of AMETEK by 6.9% during the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 47,166 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $8,099,000 after acquiring an additional 3,058 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of AMETEK by 96.2% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,828 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $829,000 after buying an additional 2,367 shares during the last quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. increased its holdings in shares of AMETEK by 7.2% in the third quarter. Fulton Bank N.A. now owns 3,078 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $529,000 after buying an additional 206 shares during the period. CWM LLC grew its position in AMETEK by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 11,236 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,929,000 after acquiring an additional 642 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mountain Pacific Investment Advisers LLC increased its stake in AMETEK by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Mountain Pacific Investment Advisers LLC now owns 373,569 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $64,146,000 after purchasing an additional 2,927 shares during the period. 87.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider David F. Hermance sold 6,243 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.99, for a total value of $1,192,350.57. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,731 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,015,253.69. This represents a 14.53 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Emanuela Speranza sold 6,747 shares of AMETEK stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.90, for a total value of $1,321,737.30. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,460 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,967,114. The trade was a 18.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 29,200 shares of company stock worth $5,707,620 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of AMETEK from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Bank of America upgraded shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $195.00 to $225.00 in a report on Monday, December 16th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on AMETEK from $200.00 to $197.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Mizuho increased their price objective on AMETEK from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AMETEK presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.67.

AMETEK Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE AME opened at $180.05 on Thursday. AMETEK, Inc. has a 1 year low of $149.03 and a 1 year high of $198.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $184.84 and a 200 day moving average of $176.58. The stock has a market cap of $41.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.16.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) last released its 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. The firm had revenue of $1.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. AMETEK had a net margin of 19.27% and a return on equity of 16.88%. The business’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.68 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that AMETEK, Inc. will post 6.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AMETEK Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 6th were issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 6th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.62%. AMETEK’s payout ratio is presently 19.51%.

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.