Blair William & Co. IL Decreases Stock Position in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME)

Blair William & Co. IL trimmed its position in shares of AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME - Free Report) by 1.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 706,402 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 11,793 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL owned about 0.31% of AMETEK worth $127,336,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of AME. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of AMETEK by 62.6% in the 3rd quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 200 shares of the technology company's stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its stake in AMETEK by 3,116.7% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 193 shares of the technology company's stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 187 shares during the last quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc boosted its position in AMETEK by 1,176.5% during the fourth quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 217 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew 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 buying an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Finally, OFI Invest Asset Management purchased a new position in shares of AMETEK in the fourth quarter worth about $43,000. Institutional investors own 87.43% of the company's stock.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Truist Financial raised their price target on AMETEK from $221.00 to $222.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of AMETEK from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. BNP Paribas raised shares of AMETEK from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $210.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of AMETEK from $200.00 to $197.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of AMETEK from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their target price for the stock from $195.00 to $225.00 in a report on Monday, December 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $204.67.

AMETEK Stock Down 0.3 %

AMETEK stock traded down $0.51 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $169.89. 329,344 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,223,088. AMETEK, Inc. has a one year low of $149.03 and a one year high of $198.33. The company has a market cap of $39.20 billion, a PE ratio of 28.66, a PEG ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.14. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $182.60 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $181.03. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.76 billion for 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 firm's revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.68 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that AMETEK, Inc. will post 7.15 EPS 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 paid a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.73%. This is a positive change 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 (DPR) is presently 20.91%.

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

Insider Activity at AMETEK

In other AMETEK news, Director Thomas A. Amato sold 710 shares of AMETEK stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $176.64, for a total transaction of $125,414.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 10,560 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,865,318.40. The trade was a 6.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Steven W. Kohlhagen sold 1,320 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.41, for a total value of $250,021.20. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 22,029 shares in the company, valued at $4,172,512.89. This trade represents a 5.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.57% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.