8,754 Shares in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) Purchased by Illumine Investment Management LLC

Illumine Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 8,754 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,578,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. lifted 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 purchasing an additional 77 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its stake in AMETEK by 3,116.7% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 193 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 187 shares during the period. AdvisorNet Financial Inc lifted its stake in AMETEK by 1,176.5% during the fourth quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 217 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted 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 purchasing an additional 70 shares during the period. Finally, Princeton Global Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of AMETEK in the third quarter valued at approximately $44,000. 87.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on AME shares. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of AMETEK from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Truist Financial raised their price target on shares of AMETEK from $221.00 to $222.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Bank of America raised shares of 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 report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, AMETEK presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $204.67.

AMETEK Price Performance

AME opened at $187.27 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $183.13 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $178.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 1.24. 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 $43.32 billion, a PE ratio of 31.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.16.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $1.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.68 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that AMETEK, Inc. will post 7.15 earnings per share for the current year.

AMETEK declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Friday, February 7th that permits the company to repurchase $1.25 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the technology company to buy up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

AMETEK Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared 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 is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.66%. AMETEK’s payout ratio is 18.89%.

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.