Gateway Investment Advisers LLC Lowers Position in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME)

Gateway Investment Advisers LLC lessened its holdings in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) by 8.3% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 8,360 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 760 shares during the quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings in AMETEK were worth $1,507,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its position in shares of AMETEK by 3,116.7% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 193 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 187 shares in the last quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. raised its position in shares of AMETEK by 62.6% in the third quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 200 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc raised its position in shares of AMETEK by 1,176.5% in the fourth quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 217 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in AMETEK during the third quarter valued at about $44,000. Finally, Anchor Investment Management LLC raised its position in AMETEK by 366.1% during the third quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 261 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 205 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.43% of the company’s stock.

AMETEK Stock Down 0.1 %

NYSE AME opened at $180.74 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.81 billion, a PE ratio of 31.49, a PEG ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 1.16. AMETEK, Inc. has a 1 year low of $149.03 and a 1 year high of $198.33. The business’s 50-day moving average is $187.38 and its 200 day moving average is $175.02.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The technology company reported $1.66 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.71 billion. AMETEK had a return on equity of 16.88% and a net margin of 19.27%. AMETEK’s quarterly revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.64 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that AMETEK, Inc. will post 6.8 earnings per share for the current year.

AMETEK Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th were paid a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 6th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.62%. AMETEK’s payout ratio is presently 19.51%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on AME shares. Mizuho raised their price target on AMETEK from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Bank of America upgraded AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $195.00 to $225.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. BNP Paribas upgraded AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday. StockNews.com downgraded AMETEK from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price objective on AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $203.44.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other AMETEK news, insider Emanuela Speranza sold 6,747 shares of AMETEK stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.90, for a total transaction of $1,321,737.30. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,460 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,967,114. The trade was a 18.13 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider David F. Hermance sold 6,243 shares of AMETEK stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.99, for a total value of $1,192,350.57. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,731 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,015,253.69. The trade was a 14.53 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 29,200 shares of company stock valued at $5,707,620 over the last ninety days. 0.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.