Insider Selling: AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) Director Sells $250,021.20 in Stock

AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) Director Steven W. Kohlhagen sold 1,320 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.41, for a total transaction of $250,021.20. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 22,029 shares in the company, valued at $4,172,512.89. The trade was a 5.65 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

AMETEK Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE AME opened at $184.09 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 1.24. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $183.34 and its 200-day moving average price is $179.69. AMETEK, Inc. has a 52-week low of $149.03 and a 52-week high of $198.33. The company has a market cap of $42.46 billion, a PE ratio of 31.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.14.

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. AMETEK had a net margin of 19.83% and a return on equity of 16.94%. The firm had revenue of $1.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.82 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.68 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that AMETEK, Inc. will post 7.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AMETEK declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Friday, February 7th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.25 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the technology company to repurchase up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.31 per share. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.67%. This is a boost from AMETEK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. AMETEK’s payout ratio is presently 20.91%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Cim LLC raised its holdings in shares of AMETEK by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Cim LLC now owns 7,256 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,308,000 after purchasing an additional 114 shares during the last quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new stake in AMETEK during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $49,493,000. Ascent Group LLC increased its holdings in AMETEK by 7.8% during the fourth quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 32,885 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $5,928,000 after buying an additional 2,393 shares during the last quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in AMETEK by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 1,761,312 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $317,494,000 after buying an additional 53,363 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its holdings in AMETEK by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 20,163 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,635,000 after buying an additional 176 shares during the last quarter. 87.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AME has been the topic of several research reports. BNP Paribas raised shares of 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. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of AMETEK from $221.00 to $222.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. StockNews.com lowered shares of AMETEK from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 1st. Bank of America raised shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $195.00 to $225.00 in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price objective 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.