AMETEK (NYSE:AME) Upgraded at BNP Paribas

BNP Paribas upgraded shares of AMETEK (NYSE:AME) from a neutral rating to an outperform rating in a research note released on Thursday morning, MarketBeat reports. They currently have $210.00 target price on the technology company’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on AME. 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 research note on Monday, December 16th. Mizuho raised their price target on AMETEK from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on AMETEK from $166.00 to $186.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Truist Financial increased their target price on AMETEK from $219.00 to $221.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, TD Cowen cut AMETEK from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $203.44.

AMETEK Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of AME stock opened at $180.74 on Thursday. 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 has a 12-month low of $149.03 and a 12-month high of $198.33. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.49, a P/E/G ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 1.16. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $187.17 and its 200 day moving average is $175.12.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The technology company reported $1.66 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.71 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.64 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that AMETEK will post 6.8 earnings per share for the current year.

AMETEK Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Shareholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.62%. AMETEK’s payout ratio is currently 19.51%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Emanuela Speranza sold 6,747 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $195.90, for a total value of $1,321,737.30. Following the sale, 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider David F. Hermance sold 6,243 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,731 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,015,253.69. This represents a 14.53 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 29,200 shares of company stock worth $5,707,620. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of AMETEK

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of AMETEK by 0.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,220,376 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,583,231,000 after purchasing an additional 24,072 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in AMETEK by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,985,350 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,199,454,000 after acquiring an additional 250,538 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in AMETEK by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,401,656 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $924,308,000 after acquiring an additional 45,459 shares in the last quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. increased its position in shares of AMETEK by 87.9% during the third quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 1,964,236 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $337,279,000 after acquiring an additional 918,737 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of AMETEK by 72.0% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,680,309 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $288,526,000 after acquiring an additional 703,501 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.43% of the company’s stock.

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.