Benjamin Edwards Inc. Makes New $458,000 Investment in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME)

Benjamin Edwards Inc. bought a new position in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 2,775 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $458,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Morgan Stanley raised its position in AMETEK by 19.2% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,189,108 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $618,983,000 after buying an additional 674,549 shares during the last quarter. Flossbach Von Storch AG increased its position in shares of AMETEK by 10.8% during the 4th quarter. Flossbach Von Storch AG now owns 2,586,030 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $426,410,000 after purchasing an additional 252,455 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of AMETEK by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,362,467 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $349,078,000 after purchasing an additional 96,793 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of AMETEK by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,193,916 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $176,413,000 after purchasing an additional 10,893 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. increased its position in shares of AMETEK by 84.9% during the 3rd quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 1,081,557 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $159,811,000 after purchasing an additional 496,523 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on AME shares. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of AMETEK from $192.00 to $188.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. KeyCorp upped their price target on shares of AMETEK from $182.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 27th. StockNews.com lowered shares of AMETEK from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 2nd. Finally, Truist Financial initiated coverage on shares of AMETEK in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $210.00 price target for the company. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $180.78.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AMETEK news, Director Thomas A. Amato sold 780 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $182.00, for a total value of $141,960.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,240 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,863,680. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, Director Thomas A. Amato sold 780 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,240 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,863,680. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO William Joseph Burke sold 5,973 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $168.90, for a total value of $1,008,839.70. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 101,709 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,178,650.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 59,881 shares of company stock worth $10,689,758 in the last three months. 0.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

AMETEK Stock Performance

AMETEK stock traded up $3.15 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $166.49. The stock had a trading volume of 2,065,096 shares, compared to its average volume of 972,476. AMETEK, Inc. has a 52-week low of $136.89 and a 52-week high of $186.32. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The company has a market capitalization of $38.49 billion, a PE ratio of 29.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 1.21. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $179.88 and its two-hundred day moving average is $165.94.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The technology company reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.59 by $0.05. AMETEK had a return on equity of 17.96% and a net margin of 19.91%. The business had revenue of $1.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.78 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.49 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that AMETEK, Inc. will post 6.82 EPS for the current year.

AMETEK Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 8th were paid a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. This is an increase from AMETEK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. AMETEK’s dividend payout ratio is presently 19.75%.

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.