Versor Investments LP Purchases New Position in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME)

Versor Investments LP purchased a new stake in shares of AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 5,842 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,053,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of AMETEK during the fourth quarter valued at about $30,671,000. Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. increased its position in shares of AMETEK by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. now owns 90,000 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $16,223,000 after buying an additional 1,500 shares during the period. New York Life Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of AMETEK by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC now owns 30,945 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $5,578,000 after buying an additional 211 shares during the period. Convergence Financial LLC increased its position in shares of AMETEK by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. Convergence Financial LLC now owns 9,694 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,747,000 after buying an additional 536 shares during the period. Finally, SRN Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of AMETEK during the fourth quarter valued at about $690,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of AMETEK from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of AMETEK from $200.00 to $197.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. BNP Paribas raised shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $195.00 to $225.00 in a research note on Monday, December 16th. 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 given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.67.

AMETEK Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE AME opened at $187.27 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $43.32 billion, a PE ratio of 31.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.16. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $183.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $178.87. AMETEK, Inc. has a 52-week low of $149.03 and a 52-week high of $198.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 1.24.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.82 billion. AMETEK had a net margin of 19.83% and a return on equity of 16.94%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.68 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that AMETEK, Inc. will post 7.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AMETEK Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.31 per share. This is an increase from AMETEK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.66%. AMETEK’s dividend payout ratio is 18.89%.

AMETEK declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Friday, February 7th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.25 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the technology company to buy up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership 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.