Alberta Investment Management Corp Acquires New Position in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME)

Alberta Investment Management Corp acquired a new stake in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 75,729 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,651,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp lifted its position in AMETEK by 0.3% in the third 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 during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in AMETEK by 3.7% in the third 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 during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in AMETEK by 0.8% in the third 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 during the last quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. lifted its position in AMETEK by 87.9% in the third quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 1,964,236 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $337,279,000 after buying an additional 918,737 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in AMETEK by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,749,446 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $315,355,000 after buying an additional 69,137 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.43% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other AMETEK news, insider Emanuela Speranza sold 6,747 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.90, for a total value of $1,321,737.30. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 30,460 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,967,114. This represents a 18.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Tony J. Ciampitti sold 16,210 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $197.01, for a total value of $3,193,532.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 49,490 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,750,024.90. The trade was a 24.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

AMETEK Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AME opened at $184.01 on Wednesday. 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 0.84. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $183.06 and a 200 day moving average price of $177.47. The company has a market cap of $42.56 billion, a PE ratio of 31.03, a P/E/G ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.16.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.02. The business 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 company’s revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.68 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that AMETEK, Inc. will post 7.15 EPS for the current year.

AMETEK announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share 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 generally a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

AMETEK Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from AMETEK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. AMETEK’s payout ratio is 18.89%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AME has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. BNP Paribas raised shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. StockNews.com raised shares of AMETEK from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Bank of America upgraded shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $195.00 to $225.00 in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on shares of AMETEK from $200.00 to $197.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, AMETEK presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $204.67.

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.