Steven W. Kohlhagen Sells 1,320 Shares of AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) Stock

AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) Director Steven W. Kohlhagen sold 1,320 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were 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 directly 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

AMETEK Price Performance

AMETEK stock opened at $185.07 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $42.69 billion, a PE ratio of 31.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.14. AMETEK, Inc. has a 52-week low of $149.03 and a 52-week high of $198.33. The company has a quick ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The company’s 50 day moving average is $183.34 and its two-hundred day moving average is $179.66.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. AMETEK had a net margin of 19.83% and a return on equity of 16.94%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.68 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that AMETEK, Inc. will post 7.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AMETEK announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Friday, February 7th that permits the company to repurchase $1.25 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the technology company to repurchase up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

AMETEK Increases Dividend

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AMETEK

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new stake in shares of AMETEK in the 3rd quarter valued at $3,724,000. Everence Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of AMETEK in the 4th quarter valued at $999,000. Czech National Bank raised its holdings in shares of AMETEK by 6.3% in the 4th quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 50,153 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $9,041,000 after purchasing an additional 2,987 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its holdings in shares of AMETEK by 23.2% in the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 355,828 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $61,099,000 after purchasing an additional 67,025 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Taurus Asset Management LLC raised its stake in AMETEK by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Taurus Asset Management LLC now owns 115,033 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $19,752,000 after acquiring an additional 3,210 shares in the last quarter. 87.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on AME shares. KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. BNP Paribas raised shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of AMETEK from $200.00 to $197.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of AMETEK from $221.00 to $222.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of AMETEK from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AMETEK has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $204.67.

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.