StockNews.com Upgrades AMETEK (NYSE:AME) to “Buy”

StockNews.com upgraded shares of AMETEK (NYSE:AME) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday morning.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on AME. Bank of America upgraded AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $195.00 to $225.00 in a report on Monday, December 16th. BNP Paribas upgraded 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. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on AMETEK from $221.00 to $222.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. TD Cowen lowered AMETEK from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their target price on AMETEK from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $203.44.

AMETEK Price Performance

Shares of AMETEK stock opened at $185.98 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $43.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 1.39. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $185.87 and a 200-day moving average price of $176.25. AMETEK has a one year low of $149.03 and a one year high of $198.33.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The technology company reported $1.66 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.04. AMETEK had a return on equity of 16.88% and a net margin of 19.27%. The firm had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.71 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.64 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that AMETEK will post 6.8 EPS for the current year.

AMETEK Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th were given a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 6th. AMETEK’s dividend payout ratio is currently 19.51%.

Insider Activity at AMETEK

In other AMETEK news, insider David F. Hermance sold 6,243 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.99, for a total transaction of $1,192,350.57. Following the sale, the insider now owns 36,731 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,015,253.69. The trade was a 14.53 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Tony J. Ciampitti sold 16,210 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $197.01, for a total value of $3,193,532.10. Following the sale, the insider now owns 49,490 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,750,024.90. The trade was a 24.67 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 29,200 shares of company stock valued at $5,707,620 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of AMETEK

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. raised its holdings in AMETEK by 87.9% in the 3rd quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 1,964,236 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $337,279,000 after purchasing an additional 918,737 shares during the period. Meridiem Investment Management Ltd. acquired a new position in AMETEK in the 3rd quarter worth about $130,579,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in AMETEK by 72.0% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,680,309 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $288,526,000 after purchasing an additional 703,501 shares during the period. D1 Capital Partners L.P. acquired a new position in AMETEK in the 3rd quarter worth about $79,782,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in AMETEK by 434.5% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 541,517 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $97,614,000 after purchasing an additional 440,197 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.