New York Life Investment Management LLC Grows Holdings in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME)

New York Life Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) by 0.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 30,945 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 211 shares during the quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC’s holdings in AMETEK were worth $5,578,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB boosted its stake in shares of AMETEK by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,450 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $261,000 after buying an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of AMETEK by 42.9% during the 4th quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 233 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. AlphaMark Advisors LLC lifted its stake in AMETEK by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. AlphaMark Advisors LLC now owns 3,348 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $604,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in AMETEK by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,843 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $332,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Howard Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in AMETEK by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. Howard Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,501 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $271,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares during the last quarter. 87.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on AME. KeyCorp raised their price objective on AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. BNP Paribas upgraded 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. Bank of America upgraded AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $195.00 to $225.00 in a research note on Monday, December 16th. StockNews.com cut AMETEK from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday. Finally, Mizuho raised their price objective on AMETEK from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $204.67.

AMETEK Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AME opened at $189.18 on Friday. AMETEK, Inc. has a 1-year low of $149.03 and a 1-year high of $198.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 0.75. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $183.25 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $179.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.64 billion, a PE ratio of 31.90, a P/E/G ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.16.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 16.94% and a net margin of 19.83%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.68 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that AMETEK, Inc. will post 7.15 EPS for the current year.

AMETEK Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.31 per share. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.66%. 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 20.91%.

AMETEK declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Friday, February 7th that allows the company to buyback $1.25 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the technology company to purchase up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are 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.