AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) Shares Acquired by Howard Capital Management Inc.

Howard Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) by 5.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,501 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 72 shares during the quarter. Howard Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in AMETEK were worth $271,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. lifted its stake in AMETEK by 87.9% during the third quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 1,964,236 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $337,279,000 after purchasing an additional 918,737 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in AMETEK by 72.0% during the third 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 during the last quarter. Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in AMETEK by 10,506.5% during the fourth quarter. Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC now owns 476,442 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $812,000 after purchasing an additional 471,950 shares during the last quarter. D1 Capital Partners L.P. purchased a new stake in AMETEK during the third quarter worth approximately $79,782,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted 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 worth $97,614,000 after purchasing an additional 440,197 shares during the last quarter. 87.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. BNP Paribas upgraded AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on AMETEK from $200.00 to $197.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 5th. Bank of America upgraded AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $195.00 to $225.00 in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price objective on AMETEK from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $204.67.

AMETEK Price Performance

AMETEK stock opened at $186.88 on Wednesday. AMETEK, Inc. has a 12 month low of $149.03 and a 12 month high of $198.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 0.75. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $182.88 and a 200-day simple moving average of $178.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.23 billion, a PE ratio of 31.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.16.

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

AMETEK declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share 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 buy up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

AMETEK Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.31 per share. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from AMETEK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. AMETEK’s dividend payout ratio is 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.