Banco Santander S.A. Cuts Stock Position in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME)

Banco Santander S.A. decreased its holdings in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) by 14.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 37,566 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 6,198 shares during the quarter. Banco Santander S.A.’s holdings in AMETEK were worth $6,772,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of AMETEK by 72.0% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,680,309 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $288,526,000 after acquiring an additional 703,501 shares in the last quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC grew its stake in AMETEK by 15.7% during the 3rd quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC now owns 3,056 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $525,000 after purchasing an additional 415 shares in the last quarter. Leavell Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in AMETEK by 7.3% during the 3rd quarter. Leavell Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,456 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $765,000 after purchasing an additional 304 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. raised its position in AMETEK by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 68,204 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $11,711,000 after purchasing an additional 5,873 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Guerra Pan Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of AMETEK in the 3rd quarter valued at about $205,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.43% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Steven W. Kohlhagen sold 1,320 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $189.41, for a total value of $250,021.20. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 22,029 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,172,512.89. This represents a 5.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

AMETEK Stock Down 0.0 %

AME opened at $184.12 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 1.24. AMETEK, Inc. has a one year low of $149.03 and a one year high of $198.33. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $183.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $179.93.

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. The company had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. AMETEK had a return on equity of 16.94% and a net margin of 19.83%. The firm’s revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.68 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that AMETEK, Inc. will post 7.15 EPS for the current year.

AMETEK announced that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Friday, February 7th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.25 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the technology company to purchase up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

AMETEK Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. This is a boost from AMETEK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. AMETEK’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.91%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have commented on AME shares. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Bank of America raised shares of 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 report on Monday, December 16th. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on AMETEK from $200.00 to $197.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com raised AMETEK from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Sunday. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price objective on AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. 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 given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $204.67.

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.