AMETEK (NYSE:AME) Downgraded to “Hold” Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com downgraded shares of AMETEK (NYSE:AME) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Friday.

AME has been the subject of several other research reports. Bank of America raised shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $195.00 to $225.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of AMETEK from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of AMETEK from $221.00 to $222.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. TD Cowen cut AMETEK from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AMETEK currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $203.44.

AMETEK Stock Performance

Shares of AME stock opened at $180.74 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The company has a market cap of $41.81 billion, a PE ratio of 31.49, a P/E/G ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 1.16. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $187.17 and its 200-day simple moving average is $175.19. AMETEK has a 52 week low of $149.03 and a 52 week high of $198.33.

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

AMETEK Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at AMETEK

In related news, insider David F. Hermance sold 6,243 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the transaction, 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Tony J. Ciampitti sold 16,210 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $197.01, for a total value of $3,193,532.10. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 49,490 shares in the company, valued at $9,750,024.90. The trade was a 24.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 29,200 shares of company stock valued at $5,707,620. Corporate insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of AMETEK

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. grew its position in AMETEK by 87.9% in the 3rd 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. Meridiem Investment Management Ltd. bought a new position in AMETEK in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $130,579,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in AMETEK by 72.0% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,680,309 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $288,526,000 after acquiring an additional 703,501 shares during the period. D1 Capital Partners L.P. bought a new stake in AMETEK during the 3rd quarter valued at $79,782,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in AMETEK by 434.5% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 541,517 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $97,614,000 after acquiring an additional 440,197 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.