CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co Acquires 25,657 Shares of AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME)

CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co raised its position in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME - Free Report) by 10.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 260,727 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 25,657 shares during the quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co owned about 0.11% of AMETEK worth $46,986,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AME. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB increased its stake in shares of AMETEK by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,450 shares of the technology company's stock worth $261,000 after buying an additional 63 shares during the period. Kensington Investment Counsel LLC increased its position in shares of AMETEK by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Kensington Investment Counsel LLC now owns 14,277 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $2,574,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of AMETEK by 42.9% during the fourth quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 233 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. AlphaMark Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AMETEK by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. AlphaMark Advisors LLC now owns 3,348 shares of the technology company's stock worth $604,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the period. Finally, Quotient Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of AMETEK by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Quotient Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,843 shares of the technology company's stock worth $332,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.43% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on AME. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on AMETEK from $200.00 to $197.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Truist Financial reduced their price target on shares of AMETEK from $216.00 to $196.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. StockNews.com lowered AMETEK from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. BNP Paribas raised 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of AMETEK in a report on Monday, April 14th. They set an "equal weight" rating and a $170.00 target price on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given 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.com, AMETEK has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $198.60.

AMETEK Stock Up 1.6 %

NYSE AME traded up $2.53 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $162.18. The stock had a trading volume of 1,755,359 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,428,186. The stock has a market cap of $37.42 billion, a PE ratio of 27.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.14. AMETEK, Inc. has a 1 year low of $145.02 and a 1 year high of $198.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 0.75. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $173.17 and a 200 day moving average price of $179.53.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.02. AMETEK had a return on equity of 16.94% and a net margin of 19.83%. The firm had revenue of $1.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.82 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.68 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that AMETEK, Inc. will post 7.15 earnings per share for the current year.

AMETEK Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were issued a $0.31 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.76%. This is a boost from AMETEK's previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. AMETEK's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.91%.

AMETEK declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Friday, February 7th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.25 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the technology company to repurchase up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at AMETEK

In other news, Director Thomas A. Amato sold 710 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.64, for a total value of $125,414.40. Following the transaction, the director now owns 10,560 shares in the company, valued at $1,865,318.40. This represents a 6.30 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Steven W. Kohlhagen sold 1,320 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.57% 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.