Capital Group Private Client Services Inc. Has $77.47 Million Stock Holdings in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME)

Capital Group Private Client Services Inc. lowered its position in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) by 3.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 429,777 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 13,181 shares during the period. Capital Group Private Client Services Inc. owned about 0.19% of AMETEK worth $77,472,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in AMETEK in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $697,080,000. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in AMETEK by 240.3% in the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,125,068 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $202,805,000 after purchasing an additional 794,473 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in AMETEK by 72.0% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,680,309 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $288,526,000 after purchasing an additional 703,501 shares in the last quarter. Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of AMETEK by 10,506.5% in the fourth quarter. Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC now owns 476,442 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $812,000 after purchasing an additional 471,950 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in shares of AMETEK by 434.5% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 541,517 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $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.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on AME. 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 note on Thursday, January 16th. 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 note on Wednesday, February 5th. Truist Financial dropped their target price on AMETEK from $216.00 to $196.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. StockNews.com lowered AMETEK from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of AMETEK in a research note on Monday. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $170.00 target price for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $198.60.

AMETEK Price Performance

AMETEK stock opened at $157.66 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $36.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.59, a PEG ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.14. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $174.83 and its 200-day moving average is $179.69. 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, Inc. has a 12 month low of $145.02 and a 12 month high of $198.33.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $1.87 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $1.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.82 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.68 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that AMETEK, Inc. will post 7.15 EPS for the current year.

AMETEK Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.79%. This is an increase from AMETEK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. AMETEK’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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 shares. This buyback authorization allows the technology company to reacquire up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at AMETEK

In other AMETEK news, Director Thomas A. Amato sold 710 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.64, for a total transaction of $125,414.40. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 10,560 shares in the company, valued at $1,865,318.40. This represents a 6.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Steven W. Kohlhagen sold 1,320 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.41, for a total transaction of $250,021.20. Following the sale, the director now directly 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.57% of the company’s stock.

AMETEK 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.