JPMorgan Chase & Co. Purchases 250,538 Shares of AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) by 3.7% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 6,985,350 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 250,538 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s holdings in AMETEK were worth $1,199,454,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. 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 worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of AMETEK in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $44,000. Anchor Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of AMETEK by 366.1% during the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new stake in AMETEK during the 2nd quarter valued at $50,000. Finally, Quarry LP lifted its position in AMETEK by 226.1% in the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 300 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $52,000 after buying an additional 208 shares during the last quarter. 87.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AME has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Bank of America upgraded shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $195.00 to $225.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Wolfe Research raised shares of AMETEK to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Mizuho boosted their target price on AMETEK from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com upgraded AMETEK from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on AMETEK from $166.00 to $186.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $202.50.

AMETEK Price Performance

AME opened at $183.72 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $42.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.01, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. AMETEK, Inc. has a 12-month low of $149.03 and a 12-month high of $198.33. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $185.90 and its 200-day simple moving average is $174.04.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) last issued 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. AMETEK had a net margin of 19.27% and a return on equity of 16.88%. The company had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.71 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.64 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that AMETEK, Inc. will post 6.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AMETEK Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th were paid a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.61%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 6th. AMETEK’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 19.51%.

Insider Buying and Selling at AMETEK

In other news, insider David F. Hermance sold 6,243 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.99, for a total transaction of $1,192,350.57. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,731 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,015,253.69. This represents a 14.53 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Tony J. Ciampitti sold 16,210 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $197.01, for a total value of $3,193,532.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 49,490 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,750,024.90. The trade was a 24.67 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 29,200 shares of company stock valued at $5,707,620. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

AMETEK Company 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.