AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) Declares Dividend Increase - $0.31 Per Share

AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 7th,RTT News reports. Shareholders 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 0.68%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from AMETEK's previous quarterly dividend of $0.28.

AMETEK has increased its dividend payment by an average of 11.9% per year over the last three years. AMETEK has a payout ratio of 14.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect AMETEK to earn $7.74 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.12 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 14.5%.

AMETEK Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of AMETEK stock traded down $2.44 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $183.53. 514,538 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,355,241. The company has a market cap of $42.45 billion, a PE ratio of 30.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.16. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $183.90 and a 200-day moving average of $176.95. AMETEK has a 12 month low of $149.03 and a 12 month high of $198.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 1.24.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME - Get Free Report) 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.82 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.68 earnings per share. AMETEK's quarterly revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that AMETEK will post 7.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at AMETEK

In related news, insider Emanuela Speranza sold 6,747 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on 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 owns 30,460 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,967,114. The trade was a 18.13 % 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 company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $197.01, for a total value of $3,193,532.10. Following the sale, the insider now owns 49,490 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,750,024.90. This trade represents a 24.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.61% of the company's stock.

AMETEK declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase program on Friday, February 7th that permits the company to repurchase $1.25 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the technology company to reacquire up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on AME shares. KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. StockNews.com cut AMETEK from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Bank of America upgraded AMETEK from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price objective for the company 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 objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Mizuho upped 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. One investment 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 company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AMETEK presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $204.67.

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.