HM Payson & Co. Buys 3,528 Shares of AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME)

HM Payson & Co. grew its stake in shares of AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME - Free Report) by 0.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 530,360 shares of the technology company's stock after buying an additional 3,528 shares during the quarter. AMETEK comprises 1.6% of HM Payson & Co.'s holdings, making the stock its 17th biggest position. HM Payson & Co. owned about 0.23% of AMETEK worth $95,603,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in AME. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new stake in AMETEK during the third quarter worth approximately $3,724,000. Everence Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of AMETEK during the 4th quarter valued at $999,000. Czech National Bank raised its stake in shares of AMETEK by 6.3% in the 4th quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 50,153 shares of the technology company's stock worth $9,041,000 after buying an additional 2,987 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its holdings in shares of AMETEK by 23.2% in the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 355,828 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $61,099,000 after buying an additional 67,025 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in AMETEK by 434.5% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 541,517 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $97,614,000 after buying an additional 440,197 shares in the last quarter. 87.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of AMETEK from $200.00 to $197.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. KeyCorp upped their price target on AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Bank of America raised 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 research note on Monday, December 16th. StockNews.com raised AMETEK from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Sunday. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded AMETEK from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $210.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AMETEK currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $204.67.

AMETEK Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of AME traded down $1.52 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $177.34. The company's stock had a trading volume of 943,505 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,355,885. The company has a 50 day moving average of $183.33 and a two-hundred day moving average of $180.21. The company has a quick ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The firm has a market cap of $40.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.14. AMETEK, Inc. has a 1-year low of $149.03 and a 1-year high of $198.33.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. AMETEK had a net margin of 19.83% and a return on equity of 16.94%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.68 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that AMETEK, Inc. will post 7.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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 given a dividend of $0.31 per share. This is a boost from AMETEK's previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.70%. AMETEK's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.91%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at AMETEK

In related news, Director Steven W. Kohlhagen sold 1,320 shares of the firm'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 transaction, the director now owns 22,029 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,172,512.89. This trade represents a 5.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.61% 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.