AMETEK (NYSE:AME) Upgraded at Bank of America

Bank of America upgraded shares of AMETEK (NYSE:AME) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Bank of America currently has $225.00 price target on the technology company’s stock, up from their previous price target of $195.00.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on AME. Wolfe Research raised AMETEK to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. StockNews.com upgraded AMETEK from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Truist Financial raised their target price on AMETEK from $219.00 to $221.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of AMETEK from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $202.50.

AMETEK Stock Performance

AME stock opened at $180.76 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $41.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.49, a P/E/G ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 1.15. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $184.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is $173.45. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. AMETEK has a 12-month low of $149.03 and a 12-month high of $198.33.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The technology company reported $1.66 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.04. AMETEK had a net margin of 19.27% and a return on equity of 16.88%. The company had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.71 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.64 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that AMETEK will post 6.8 EPS for the current year.

AMETEK Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. AMETEK’s dividend payout ratio is presently 19.51%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AMETEK news, insider Emanuela Speranza sold 6,747 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $195.90, for a total transaction 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. This represents a 18.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Steven W. Kohlhagen sold 1,460 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.59, for a total transaction of $250,521.40. Following the sale, the director now owns 23,349 shares in the company, valued at $4,006,454.91. This represents a 5.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 30,660 shares of company stock worth $5,958,141. 0.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AMETEK

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in AME. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of AMETEK by 0.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,220,376 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,583,231,000 after purchasing an additional 24,072 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of AMETEK by 0.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,401,656 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $924,308,000 after acquiring an additional 45,459 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in shares of AMETEK by 34.6% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,602,753 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $600,615,000 after purchasing an additional 926,657 shares during the period. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. grew its position in AMETEK by 87.9% in the third quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 1,964,236 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $337,279,000 after purchasing an additional 918,737 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of AMETEK by 8.6% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,882,166 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $313,777,000 after purchasing an additional 148,447 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.43% 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.