Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund Reduces Stock Position in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME)

Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund reduced its position in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) by 0.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 25,728 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 100 shares during the quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund’s holdings in AMETEK were worth $4,638,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. boosted its position in AMETEK by 62.6% during the 3rd quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 200 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 77 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its stake in shares of AMETEK by 3,116.7% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 193 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 187 shares during the period. AdvisorNet Financial Inc grew its holdings in AMETEK by 1,176.5% in the 4th quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 217 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its position in AMETEK by 42.9% during the 4th quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 233 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the period. Finally, Princeton Global Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of AMETEK during the third quarter valued at about $44,000. 87.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of AMETEK from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com raised AMETEK from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. KeyCorp boosted their price target on shares of AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Bank of America upgraded shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $195.00 to $225.00 in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, BNP Paribas raised AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 price target 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.67.

AMETEK Price Performance

AME opened at $186.88 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.51, a PEG ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.16. AMETEK, Inc. has a 12-month low of $149.03 and a 12-month high of $198.33. 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 stock has a fifty day moving average of $182.88 and a 200-day moving average of $178.74.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.82 billion. AMETEK had a return on equity of 16.94% and a net margin of 19.83%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.68 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that AMETEK, Inc. will post 7.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AMETEK declared that its board has approved a share repurchase 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 usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is 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 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 0.66%. AMETEK’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.