Insider Selling: AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) Director Sells 780 Shares of Stock

AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) Director Thomas A. Amato sold 780 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $182.00, for a total transaction of $141,960.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,240 shares in the company, valued at $1,863,680. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

AMETEK Price Performance

Shares of AME stock traded down $1.09 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $181.67. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 746,566 shares, compared to its average volume of 973,757. AMETEK, Inc. has a 1-year low of $133.12 and a 1-year high of $186.32. The company has a market cap of $42.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.24, a PEG ratio of 2.93 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.98. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $173.06 and its two-hundred day moving average is $160.43.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The technology company reported $1.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.06. AMETEK had a net margin of 19.91% and a return on equity of 17.96%. The company had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.73 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.52 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that AMETEK, Inc. will post 6.82 earnings per share for the current year.

AMETEK Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 8th will be paid a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.62%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 7th. This is an increase from AMETEK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. AMETEK’s payout ratio is currently 19.75%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AME has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Truist Financial began coverage on AMETEK in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $210.00 price objective on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on AMETEK from $192.00 to $188.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. TD Cowen lowered AMETEK from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $165.00 to $160.00 in a report on Monday, November 27th. StockNews.com lowered AMETEK from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, March 2nd. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of AMETEK from $182.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $180.78.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AMETEK

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AME. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of AMETEK in the 4th quarter valued at $509,944,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of AMETEK by 643.7% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,953,131 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $552,332,000 after purchasing an additional 3,421,558 shares in the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in AMETEK by 39,681.6% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,827,569 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $255,348,000 after buying an additional 1,822,975 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in AMETEK by 93.2% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,678,094 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $513,903,000 after buying an additional 1,774,651 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in AMETEK by 5.4% during the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 17,085,162 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,765,746,000 after buying an additional 870,060 shares in the last quarter. 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.