Forsta AP Fonden Decreases Stock Holdings in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME)

Forsta AP Fonden lessened its stake in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) by 0.4% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 47,600 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 200 shares during the quarter. Forsta AP Fonden’s holdings in AMETEK were worth $8,580,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. raised its holdings in shares of AMETEK by 62.6% during the third quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 200 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in shares of AMETEK by 3,116.7% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 193 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 187 shares in the last quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc raised its stake in AMETEK by 1,176.5% in the 4th quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 217 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in AMETEK by 42.9% in the 4th quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 233 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Princeton Global Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AMETEK during the third quarter worth $44,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on AME shares. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of AMETEK from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on AMETEK from $166.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. StockNews.com upgraded AMETEK from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. BNP Paribas raised shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $195.00 to $225.00 in a research note on Monday, December 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $203.44.

AMETEK Price Performance

Shares of AME opened at $185.98 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $185.87 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $176.25. The stock has a market cap of $43.02 billion, a PE ratio of 32.40, a P/E/G ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.16. AMETEK, Inc. has a 1-year low of $149.03 and a 1-year high of $198.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 0.84.

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

AMETEK Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 6th were paid a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 6th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.60%. AMETEK’s payout ratio is presently 19.51%.

Insider Activity at AMETEK

In other AMETEK news, insider Tony J. Ciampitti sold 16,210 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $197.01, for a total transaction of $3,193,532.10. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 49,490 shares in the company, valued at $9,750,024.90. This represents a 24.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider David F. Hermance sold 6,243 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.99, for a total transaction of $1,192,350.57. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,731 shares in the company, valued at $7,015,253.69. This represents a 14.53 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 29,200 shares of company stock worth $5,707,620. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.