AMETEK (NYSE:AME) Upgraded to Outperform at BNP Paribas

BNP Paribas upgraded shares of AMETEK (NYSE:AME) from a neutral rating to an outperform rating in a report released on Thursday morning, MarketBeat reports. They currently have $210.00 target price on the technology company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. StockNews.com upgraded AMETEK from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on AMETEK from $166.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Bank of America raised AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $195.00 to $225.00 in a research note on Monday, December 16th. TD Cowen cut AMETEK from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their target price on AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $203.44.

AMETEK Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of AME opened at $180.89 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $187.54 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $174.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 1.39. AMETEK has a 52-week low of $149.03 and a 52-week high of $198.33. The company has a market cap of $41.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.51, a PEG ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 1.16.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The technology company reported $1.66 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.71 billion. AMETEK had a return on equity of 16.88% and a net margin of 19.27%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.64 earnings per share. Analysts predict that AMETEK will post 6.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AMETEK Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th were issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 6th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.62%. AMETEK’s payout ratio is presently 19.51%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider David F. Hermance sold 6,243 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.99, for a total value of $1,192,350.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,731 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,015,253.69. This trade represents a 14.53 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Emanuela Speranza sold 6,747 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.90, for a total value of $1,321,737.30. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 30,460 shares in the company, valued at $5,967,114. The trade was a 18.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 29,200 shares of company stock worth $5,707,620. Corporate insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of AMETEK

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AME. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new position in shares of AMETEK in the third quarter valued at about $3,724,000. Everence Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in AMETEK during the 4th quarter worth $999,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its position in shares of AMETEK by 23.2% during the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 355,828 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $61,099,000 after acquiring an additional 67,025 shares during the period. Sawgrass Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of AMETEK by 36.5% during the 3rd quarter. Sawgrass Asset Management LLC now owns 74,757 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $12,837,000 after purchasing an additional 20,001 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Taurus Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of AMETEK by 2.9% in the third quarter. Taurus Asset Management LLC now owns 115,033 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $19,752,000 after purchasing an additional 3,210 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 87.43% 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.