AMETEK (NYSE:AME) Stock Rating Upgraded by StockNews.com

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) was upgraded by StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Thursday.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Bank of America upgraded 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 report on Monday, December 16th. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on shares of AMETEK from $200.00 to $197.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th. BNP Paribas raised shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their target price on AMETEK from $221.00 to $222.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.67.

AMETEK Trading Down 5.6 %

AME stock opened at $152.45 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $180.56 and a 200 day moving average price of $180.79. AMETEK has a fifty-two week low of $149.03 and a fifty-two week high of $198.33. The firm has a market cap of $35.18 billion, a PE ratio of 25.71, 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 (NYSE:AME) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.02. AMETEK had a net margin of 19.83% and a return on equity of 16.94%. The firm had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.82 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.68 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that AMETEK will post 7.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AMETEK announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Friday, February 7th that allows the company to repurchase $1.25 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the technology company to repurchase up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AMETEK news, Director Steven W. Kohlhagen sold 1,320 shares of the business’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 transaction, the director now directly owns 22,029 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,172,512.89. The trade was a 5.65 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas A. Amato sold 710 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $176.64, for a total transaction of $125,414.40. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 10,560 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,865,318.40. The trade was a 6.30 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.57% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of AME. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its holdings in AMETEK by 578.8% in the first quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,310 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $226,000 after purchasing an additional 1,117 shares during the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB grew its stake in AMETEK by 10.4% during the 1st quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,601 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $276,000 after buying an additional 151 shares during the last quarter. DSG Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in AMETEK during the 4th quarter valued at about $532,000. Chancellor Financial Group WB LP purchased a new stake in AMETEK in the fourth quarter valued at about $361,000. Finally, 111 Capital acquired a new position in shares of AMETEK during the fourth quarter valued at about $867,000. Institutional investors own 87.43% of the company’s stock.

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.