AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) Short Interest Down 7.5% in January

AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME - Get Free Report) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,970,000 shares, a decline of 7.5% from the January 15th total of 2,130,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,230,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.6 days. Approximately 0.9% of the company's stock are short sold.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Emanuela Speranza sold 6,747 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $195.90, for a total transaction of $1,321,737.30. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 30,460 shares in the company, valued at $5,967,114. This represents a 18.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of AMETEK by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 1,761,312 shares of the technology company's stock worth $317,494,000 after acquiring an additional 53,363 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its holdings in shares of AMETEK by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 20,163 shares of the technology company's stock worth $3,635,000 after acquiring an additional 176 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new position in shares of AMETEK during the 4th quarter worth $14,479,000. Vise Technologies Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AMETEK by 79.8% during the 4th quarter. Vise Technologies Inc. now owns 3,843 shares of the technology company's stock worth $693,000 after acquiring an additional 1,706 shares during the period. Finally, Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC raised its holdings in shares of AMETEK by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 8,767 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,580,000 after acquiring an additional 249 shares during the period. 87.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have commented on AME shares. BNP Paribas upgraded 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. StockNews.com upgraded AMETEK from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday. Truist Financial upped their price objective on AMETEK from $221.00 to $222.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Mizuho upped their price objective on AMETEK from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Bank of America upgraded AMETEK from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $195.00 to $225.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AMETEK presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $204.67.

AMETEK Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AME traded down $2.67 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $186.11. 1,202,695 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,323,194. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $182.98 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $177.84. AMETEK has a 1 year low of $149.03 and a 1 year high of $198.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 1.24. The company has a market cap of $43.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.38, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.16.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 the consensus estimate of $1.82 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.68 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that AMETEK will post 7.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AMETEK declared that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Friday, February 7th that permits the company to repurchase $1.25 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the technology company to purchase up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

AMETEK Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.31 dividend. This is an increase from AMETEK's previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. AMETEK's dividend payout ratio is currently 18.89%.

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.