Jones Financial Companies Lllp Boosts Holdings in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME)

Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its position in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) by 39.4% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 70,856 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 20,011 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp’s holdings in AMETEK were worth $12,773,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in AME. Norden Group LLC raised its position in AMETEK by 12.0% in the 4th quarter. Norden Group LLC now owns 2,344 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $423,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares during the period. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of AMETEK by 12.6% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 5,720 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,034,000 after buying an additional 641 shares during the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of AMETEK by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 18,862 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,400,000 after buying an additional 694 shares during the period. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of AMETEK by 35.8% during the 4th quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 54,097 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $9,752,000 after acquiring an additional 14,252 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Illumine Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in AMETEK during the 4th quarter valued at $1,578,000. Institutional investors own 87.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. Bank of America upgraded AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $195.00 to $225.00 in a research note on Monday, December 16th. BNP Paribas raised shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. StockNews.com cut shares of AMETEK from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of AMETEK from $221.00 to $222.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price target on AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.67.

AMETEK Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:AME opened at $189.18 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $43.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.16. AMETEK, Inc. has a 52 week low of $149.03 and a 52 week high of $198.33. The company has a quick ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $183.25 and a 200 day moving average of $179.31.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. AMETEK had a return on equity of 16.94% and a net margin of 19.83%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.68 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that AMETEK, Inc. will post 7.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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 boost from AMETEK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. AMETEK’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.91%.

AMETEK announced that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Friday, February 7th that permits the company to buyback $1.25 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the technology company to reacquire up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.