AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) Increases Dividend to $0.31 Per Share

AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 7th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of 0.31 per share by the technology company on Monday, March 31st. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is a 10.7% increase from AMETEK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28.

AMETEK has raised its dividend by an average of 11.9% annually over the last three years. AMETEK has a dividend payout ratio of 15.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect AMETEK to earn $7.73 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.24 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 16.0%.

AMETEK Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:AME opened at $179.16 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $183.33 and a 200 day moving average of $180.21. 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 company has a market capitalization of $41.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.14. AMETEK has a 52 week low of $149.03 and a 52 week high of $198.33.

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 will post 7.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Steven W. Kohlhagen sold 1,320 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.41, for a total transaction of $250,021.20. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 22,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,172,512.89. This represents a 5.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AME has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com raised shares of AMETEK from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. BNP Paribas upgraded AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 price objective for the company in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Bank of America upgraded AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $195.00 to $225.00 in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their target price on AMETEK from $221.00 to $222.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $204.67.

AMETEK announced that its board has approved a stock 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 purchase up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s board 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.