Brokerages Set AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) Target Price at $204.67

AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $204.67.

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AME. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of AMETEK from $221.00 to $222.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of AMETEK from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, March 9th. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective 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.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other 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 transaction, the director now owns 22,029 shares of the company’s stock, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB boosted its stake in shares of AMETEK by 4.5% in the 4th quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,450 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $261,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. Kensington Investment Counsel LLC boosted its stake in shares of AMETEK by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Kensington Investment Counsel LLC now owns 14,277 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,574,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. AlphaMark Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of AMETEK by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. AlphaMark Advisors LLC now owns 3,348 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $604,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of AMETEK by 42.9% in the 4th quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 233 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quotient Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in AMETEK by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,843 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $332,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.43% of the company’s stock.

AMETEK Price Performance

NYSE:AME opened at $174.50 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $40.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.43, a PEG ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.14. AMETEK has a one year low of $149.03 and a one year high of $198.33. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $182.92 and a 200 day moving average price of $180.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 0.75.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 analysts’ expectations of $1.82 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.68 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that AMETEK will post 7.15 earnings per share for the current year.

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 outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the technology company to reacquire up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

AMETEK Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.71%. This is a positive change from AMETEK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. AMETEK’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.91%.

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.