Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd Lowers Holdings in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME)

Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd reduced its position in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) by 27.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 41,085 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 15,446 shares during the period. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd’s holdings in AMETEK were worth $6,775,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. McGlone Suttner Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in AMETEK during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in AMETEK during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in AMETEK during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC purchased a new stake in AMETEK during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, Rakuten Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in AMETEK during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. 87.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AME has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on AMETEK from $192.00 to $188.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on AMETEK from $173.00 to $171.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 6th. StockNews.com raised AMETEK from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 13th. KeyCorp upped their target price on AMETEK from $182.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised AMETEK from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $200.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $181.64.

AMETEK Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AME traded up $4.75 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $173.88. 613,940 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 991,605. AMETEK, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $136.89 and a fifty-two week high of $186.32. The company has a quick ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The firm has a market cap of $40.25 billion, a PE ratio of 29.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $176.95 and a 200-day simple moving average of $168.65.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The technology company reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.59 by $0.05. AMETEK had a return on equity of 17.74% and a net margin of 19.57%. The company had revenue of $1.74 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.78 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.49 EPS. AMETEK’s revenue was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that AMETEK, Inc. will post 6.83 earnings per share for the current year.

AMETEK Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th will be issued a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. AMETEK’s payout ratio is 19.68%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO William Joseph Burke sold 27,400 shares of AMETEK stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.05, for a total value of $5,070,370.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 106,512 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,710,045.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, CFO William Joseph Burke sold 27,400 shares of AMETEK stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $185.05, for a total transaction of $5,070,370.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 106,512 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,710,045.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Steven W. Kohlhagen sold 1,400 shares of AMETEK stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.59, for a total transaction of $252,826.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 28,054 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,066,271.86. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 37,941 shares of company stock worth $6,992,804. 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.