AMETEK (NYSE:AME) Lowered to Hold Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of AMETEK (NYSE:AME) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Saturday morning.

AME has been the subject of a number of other reports. Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of AMETEK from $221.00 to $222.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Bank of America raised AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $195.00 to $225.00 in a report on Monday, December 16th. KeyCorp raised their price target on AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of AMETEK from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of AMETEK from $200.00 to $197.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, AMETEK presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.67.

AMETEK Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AME opened at $186.31 on Friday. AMETEK has a 52 week low of $149.03 and a 52 week high of $198.33. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $183.34 and a 200 day moving average price of $179.48. The company has a market cap of $42.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.42, a PEG ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a quick ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.24 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 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.82 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.68 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that AMETEK will post 7.15 earnings per share for the current year.

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

AMETEK Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.31 per share. This is an increase from AMETEK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.67%. AMETEK’s dividend payout ratio is presently 20.91%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank acquired a new position in AMETEK in the fourth quarter valued at $697,080,000. Capital World Investors boosted its position in shares of AMETEK by 70.0% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 5,760,017 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,038,301,000 after acquiring an additional 2,371,062 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in AMETEK by 393.1% in the fourth quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 1,215,087 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $219,030,000 after purchasing an additional 968,661 shares during the period. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. increased its position in AMETEK by 87.9% during the third quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 1,964,236 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $337,279,000 after purchasing an additional 918,737 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in AMETEK by 240.3% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,125,068 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $202,805,000 after purchasing an additional 794,473 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.43% of the company’s stock.

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.