Bleakley Financial Group LLC Sells 953 Shares of AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME)

Bleakley Financial Group LLC decreased its position in shares of AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) by 7.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,458 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 953 shares during the period. Bleakley Financial Group LLC’s holdings in AMETEK were worth $2,246,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. increased its position in AMETEK by 87.9% during the 3rd quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 1,964,236 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $337,279,000 after buying an additional 918,737 shares in the last quarter. Meridiem Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in AMETEK during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $130,579,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AMETEK by 72.0% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,680,309 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $288,526,000 after buying an additional 703,501 shares during the last quarter. D1 Capital Partners L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of AMETEK during the third quarter worth $79,782,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of AMETEK by 434.5% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 541,517 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $97,614,000 after acquiring an additional 440,197 shares during the period. 87.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AME has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Bank of America upgraded AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $195.00 to $225.00 in a research note on Monday, December 16th. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Robert W. Baird cut 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. Finally, StockNews.com cut AMETEK from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $204.67.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Emanuela Speranza sold 6,747 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 owns 30,460 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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, insider Tony J. Ciampitti sold 16,210 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $197.01, for a total transaction of $3,193,532.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 49,490 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,750,024.90. This represents a 24.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

AMETEK Stock Performance

NYSE AME opened at $184.54 on Friday. 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, Inc. has a twelve month low of $149.03 and a twelve month high of $198.33. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $184.29 and a 200 day moving average of $176.65. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.15, a PEG ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.16.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. AMETEK had a return on equity of 16.88% and a net margin of 19.27%. The business’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.68 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that AMETEK, Inc. will post 6.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AMETEK Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.31 dividend. This is a positive change from AMETEK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. AMETEK’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 18.89%.

AMETEK declared that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Friday, February 7th that allows the company to repurchase $1.25 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the technology company to purchase up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

AMETEK 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.