Illumine Investment Management LLC Makes New Investment in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME)

Illumine Investment Management LLC bought a new position in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 8,754 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,578,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of AMETEK by 87.9% in the third quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 1,964,236 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $337,279,000 after buying an additional 918,737 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of AMETEK by 72.0% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,680,309 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $288,526,000 after buying an additional 703,501 shares in the last quarter. Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of AMETEK by 10,506.5% in the fourth quarter. Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC now owns 476,442 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $812,000 after buying an additional 471,950 shares in the last quarter. D1 Capital Partners L.P. bought a new position in shares of AMETEK in the third quarter valued at $79,782,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in shares of AMETEK by 434.5% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 541,517 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $97,614,000 after buying an additional 440,197 shares in the last quarter. 87.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Bank of America raised AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $195.00 to $225.00 in a report on Monday, December 16th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on AMETEK from $200.00 to $197.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. StockNews.com raised shares of AMETEK from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of AMETEK from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of AMETEK from $221.00 to $222.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AMETEK currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $204.67.

AMETEK Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:AME opened at $187.27 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.32 billion, a PE ratio of 31.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.16. AMETEK, Inc. has a 1 year low of $149.03 and a 1 year high of $198.33. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $183.13 and a 200 day moving average price of $178.87. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.02. The company 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 was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.68 earnings per share. Analysts expect that AMETEK, Inc. will post 7.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

AMETEK Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from AMETEK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.66%. AMETEK’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 18.89%.

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.