Share Repurchase Program Declared by AMETEK (NYSE:AME)

AMETEK (NYSE:AME - Get Free Report) declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Friday, February 7th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $1.25 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the technology company to purchase up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on AME. StockNews.com lowered AMETEK from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of AMETEK from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $210.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on AMETEK from $200.00 to $197.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded AMETEK from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $195.00 to $225.00 in a report on Monday, December 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $204.67.

AMETEK Trading Down 1.0 %

AME stock traded down $1.94 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $184.03. 532,290 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,356,349. The firm has a market capitalization of $42.57 billion, a PE ratio of 31.00, a P/E/G ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The business's 50 day moving average price is $183.90 and its 200-day moving average price is $176.95. AMETEK has a 52-week low of $149.03 and a 52-week high of $198.33.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.02. AMETEK had a return on equity of 16.94% and a net margin of 19.83%. The business 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 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that AMETEK will post 7.15 earnings per share for the current year.

AMETEK Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.31 per share. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. This is a boost from AMETEK's previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. AMETEK's dividend payout ratio is 18.89%.

Insider Activity at AMETEK

In other news, insider Tony J. Ciampitti sold 16,210 shares of the company's stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 49,490 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,750,024.90. This represents a 24.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Emanuela Speranza sold 6,747 shares of AMETEK stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.90, for a total transaction of $1,321,737.30. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,460 shares in the company, valued at $5,967,114. This trade represents a 18.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.61% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.