Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Sells 256 Shares of AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME)

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans decreased its position in shares of AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) by 0.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 155,240 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 256 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ holdings in AMETEK were worth $27,983,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of AME. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of AMETEK by 87.9% during 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. 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 valued at $288,526,000 after buying an additional 703,501 shares during the last quarter. Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC boosted its position in AMETEK by 10,506.5% during the 4th quarter. Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC now owns 476,442 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $812,000 after buying an additional 471,950 shares during the period. D1 Capital Partners L.P. bought a new stake in AMETEK during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $79,782,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position 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 valued at $97,614,000 after acquiring an additional 440,197 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.43% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on AME shares. 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. StockNews.com raised AMETEK from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, March 9th. KeyCorp upped their target price on AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of AMETEK from $221.00 to $222.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of AMETEK from $200.00 to $197.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $204.67.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Steven W. Kohlhagen sold 1,320 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 $4,172,512.89. The trade was a 5.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

AMETEK Trading Down 0.6 %

AME opened at $176.02 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $182.96 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $180.41. AMETEK, Inc. has a 1-year low of $149.03 and a 1-year high of $198.33. The company has a market cap of $40.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

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

AMETEK Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $0.31 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.70%. This is an increase from AMETEK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. AMETEK’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.91%.

AMETEK announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Friday, February 7th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.25 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the technology company to purchase up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

About AMETEK

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.