AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) Stock Position Lifted by Sage Mountain Advisors LLC

Sage Mountain Advisors LLC grew its position in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) by 17.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,764 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 256 shares during the quarter. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC’s holdings in AMETEK were worth $318,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in AME. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. increased its stake in AMETEK by 62.6% during the third quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 200 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its holdings in shares of AMETEK by 3,116.7% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 193 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 187 shares during the period. AdvisorNet Financial Inc grew its position in shares of AMETEK by 1,176.5% during the 4th quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 217 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in AMETEK by 42.9% during the fourth quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 233 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the period. Finally, OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new position in AMETEK in the fourth quarter worth about $43,000. 87.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on AME shares. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on AMETEK from $200.00 to $197.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com raised AMETEK from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday. BNP Paribas raised shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Bank of America raised shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $195.00 to $225.00 in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.67.

Insider Activity at AMETEK

In other AMETEK news, Director Steven W. Kohlhagen sold 1,320 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.41, for a total value of $250,021.20. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 22,029 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,172,512.89. The trade was a 5.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

AMETEK Stock Performance

Shares of AME opened at $177.34 on Thursday. AMETEK, Inc. has a 52-week low of $149.03 and a 52-week high of $198.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.91 billion, a PE ratio of 29.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.14. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $183.27 and a 200 day moving average price of $180.19. 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 data on Tuesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 net margin of 19.83% and a return on equity of 16.94%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.68 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that AMETEK, Inc. will post 7.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AMETEK Increases Dividend

The company 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 $0.31 dividend. This is a positive change 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 0.70%. AMETEK’s dividend payout ratio is 20.91%.

AMETEK announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Friday, February 7th that allows the company to buyback $1.25 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the technology company to purchase up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors 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.