Assetmark Inc. Sells 3,804 Shares of AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME)

Assetmark Inc. reduced its position in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) by 5.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 64,400 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 3,804 shares during the quarter. Assetmark Inc.’s holdings in AMETEK were worth $11,609,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB raised its stake in AMETEK by 4.5% in the 4th quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,450 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $261,000 after acquiring an additional 63 shares during the period. AlphaMark Advisors LLC raised its stake in AMETEK by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. AlphaMark Advisors LLC now owns 3,348 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $604,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in AMETEK by 42.9% in the 4th quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 233 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the period. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in AMETEK by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,843 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $332,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the period. Finally, Howard Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in AMETEK by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. Howard Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,501 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $271,000 after acquiring an additional 72 shares during the period. 87.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on AME. StockNews.com cut AMETEK from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 1st. BNP Paribas upgraded AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on AMETEK from $200.00 to $197.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. KeyCorp upped their price target on AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Bank of America upgraded 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. One research 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 company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.67.

AMETEK Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE AME opened at $184.09 on Friday. AMETEK, Inc. has a 12 month low of $149.03 and a 12 month high of $198.33. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $42.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.04, a PEG ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.14. The business has a 50-day moving average of $183.34 and a 200-day moving average of $179.69.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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%. AMETEK’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.68 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that AMETEK, Inc. will post 7.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AMETEK Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.31 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. This is a positive change from AMETEK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. AMETEK’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.91%.

AMETEK announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Friday, February 7th that permits the company to repurchase $1.25 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the technology company to buy 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.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AMETEK 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 value of $250,021.20. Following the completion of the sale, the director now 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 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.