KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS Purchases Shares of 76,838 AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME)

KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new stake in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 76,838 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,851,000.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp raised its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 24,072 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 250,538 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 45,459 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 99,505 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Flossbach Von Storch SE grew its stake 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 purchasing an additional 91,287 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.43% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on AME shares. Bank of America upgraded AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $195.00 to $225.00 in a research note on Monday, December 16th. StockNews.com upgraded AMETEK from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, March 9th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on AMETEK from $200.00 to $197.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Truist Financial upped their price objective on AMETEK from $221.00 to $222.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AMETEK presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $204.67.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Steven W. Kohlhagen sold 1,320 shares of AMETEK stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,172,512.89. This trade represents a 5.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

AMETEK Stock Down 0.8 %

NYSE AME opened at $174.50 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $40.26 billion, a PE ratio of 29.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.14. AMETEK, Inc. has a one year low of $149.03 and a one year high of $198.33. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $182.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $180.62. 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 released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.82 billion. AMETEK had a return on equity of 16.94% and a net margin of 19.83%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.68 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that AMETEK, Inc. will post 7.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AMETEK Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.31 dividend. This is a boost from AMETEK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. AMETEK’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.91%.

AMETEK announced that its board has approved 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

AMETEK 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.