NFJ Investment Group LLC Buys 23,517 Shares of AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME)

NFJ Investment Group LLC increased its position in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) by 102.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 46,377 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 23,517 shares during the quarter. NFJ Investment Group LLC’s holdings in AMETEK were worth $7,963,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of AME. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. increased its stake in AMETEK by 62.6% in the 3rd quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 200 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. Family Firm Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of AMETEK during the 2nd quarter valued at $39,000. Industrial Alliance Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in AMETEK in the second quarter valued at $42,000. Princeton Global Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of AMETEK in the 3rd quarter worth about $44,000. Finally, Crewe Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of AMETEK by 168.8% during the 2nd quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC now owns 293 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $49,000 after buying an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.43% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Steven W. Kohlhagen sold 1,460 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.59, for a total transaction of $250,521.40. Following the sale, the director now owns 23,349 shares in the company, valued at $4,006,454.91. This represents a 5.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Emanuela Speranza sold 6,747 shares of AMETEK stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.90, for a total value of $1,321,737.30. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,460 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,967,114. The trade was a 18.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 30,660 shares of company stock valued at $5,958,141. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on AME shares. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of AMETEK to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on AMETEK from $166.00 to $186.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Mizuho boosted their price target on AMETEK from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Truist Financial upped their target price on AMETEK from $219.00 to $221.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $199.29.

AMETEK Stock Performance

Shares of AME stock opened at $194.34 on Wednesday. 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’s fifty day moving average price is $180.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $172.02. The stock has a market cap of $44.95 billion, a PE ratio of 33.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.19 and a beta of 1.15. AMETEK, Inc. has a 12 month low of $149.03 and a 12 month high of $198.33.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The technology company reported $1.66 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by $0.04. AMETEK had a net margin of 19.27% and a return on equity of 16.88%. The business had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.71 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.64 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that AMETEK, Inc. will post 6.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AMETEK Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. AMETEK’s payout ratio is 19.51%.

AMETEK 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.