Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. Raises Stake in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME)

Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. grew its stake in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) by 31.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 5,130 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,234 shares during the quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc.’s holdings in AMETEK were worth $925,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of AME. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of AMETEK by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,220,376 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,583,231,000 after buying an additional 24,072 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of AMETEK by 3.7% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 6,985,350 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,199,454,000 after purchasing an additional 250,538 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in AMETEK by 0.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,401,656 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $924,308,000 after buying an additional 45,459 shares in the last quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. lifted its holdings 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 valued at $337,279,000 after purchasing an additional 918,737 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AMETEK by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,749,446 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $315,355,000 after buying an additional 69,137 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.43% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on the company. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on AMETEK from $200.00 to $197.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Truist Financial raised their target price on AMETEK from $221.00 to $222.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. BNP Paribas raised shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, StockNews.com raised AMETEK from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $204.67.

AMETEK Stock Down 0.2 %

AMETEK stock opened at $185.76 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $42.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.33, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.16. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $182.88 and a 200-day simple moving average of $178.55. AMETEK, Inc. has a one year low of $149.03 and a one year high of $198.33. 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 announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.82 billion. AMETEK had a return on equity of 16.94% and a net margin of 19.83%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.68 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that AMETEK, Inc. will post 7.15 earnings per share for the current year.

AMETEK Increases Dividend

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

AMETEK declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Friday, February 7th that allows the company to buyback $1.25 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the technology company to buy up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.