Blair William & Co. IL Sells 11,793 Shares of AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME)

Blair William & Co. IL cut its position in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) by 1.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 706,402 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 11,793 shares during the quarter. Blair William & Co. IL owned about 0.31% of AMETEK worth $127,336,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its stake in AMETEK by 3,116.7% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 193 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 187 shares in the last quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. grew its position in AMETEK by 62.6% during the third quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 200 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc increased its stake in AMETEK by 1,176.5% during the 4th quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 217 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings 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 in the last quarter. Finally, OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of AMETEK during the 4th quarter valued at $43,000. 87.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on AME shares. Bank of America raised shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $195.00 to $225.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Truist Financial increased their target price 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 cut shares of AMETEK from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Robert W. Baird cut 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 upgraded shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, January 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.67.

Insider Activity at AMETEK

In related news, Director Steven W. Kohlhagen sold 1,320 shares of AMETEK stock in a transaction 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 sale, the director now owns 22,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,172,512.89. This trade represents a 5.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

AMETEK Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of AMETEK stock opened at $176.90 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $40.82 billion, a PE ratio of 29.83, a P/E/G ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.14. 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 0.15, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 0.75. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $182.92 and a 200-day moving average price of $180.80.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) last issued 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. AMETEK had a return on equity of 16.94% and a net margin of 19.83%. The firm had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.68 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that AMETEK, Inc. will post 7.15 EPS for the current year.

AMETEK Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced 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 dividend yield of 0.70%. This is an increase 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.

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.