Corient Private Wealth LLC Acquires 42,014 Shares of AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME)

Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) by 39.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 149,352 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 42,014 shares during the quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in AMETEK were worth $26,523,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AME. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of AMETEK by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,220,376 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,583,231,000 after buying an additional 24,072 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of AMETEK by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,985,350 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,199,454,000 after buying an additional 250,538 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of AMETEK by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,401,656 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $924,308,000 after buying an additional 45,459 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of AMETEK by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,415,508 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $795,939,000 after buying an additional 99,505 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Flossbach Von Storch SE increased its position in shares of AMETEK by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Flossbach Von Storch SE now owns 3,724,352 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $671,352,000 after buying an additional 91,287 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.43% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at AMETEK

In related news, Director Steven W. Kohlhagen sold 1,320 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.41, for a total value of $250,021.20. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 22,029 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,172,512.89. This trade represents a 5.65 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on AME. StockNews.com upgraded shares of AMETEK from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, March 9th. KeyCorp increased their target price on AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on AMETEK from $200.00 to $197.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Bank of America upgraded AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $195.00 to $225.00 in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, January 16th. One research 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.67.

AMETEK Trading Down 1.5 %

AMETEK stock opened at $175.90 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $183.02 and a 200-day moving average of $180.46. AMETEK, Inc. has a one year low of $149.03 and a one 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 company has a market cap of $40.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.66, a P/E/G ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.14.

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

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

AMETEK Increases Dividend

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

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.