AMETEK (NYSE:AME) Board Declares Stock Repurchase Program

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) declared that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Friday, February 7th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $1.25 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the technology company to reacquire up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of AMETEK from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Truist Financial lifted their target price on shares of AMETEK from $221.00 to $222.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of AMETEK from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. KeyCorp boosted their target price on AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on AMETEK from $200.00 to $197.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AMETEK currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.67.

AMETEK Price Performance

AME stock traded up $1.64 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $184.54. 1,646,797 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,395,336. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $184.29 and its 200-day moving average price is $176.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 1.39. The stock has a market cap of $42.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.15, a PEG ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.16. AMETEK has a fifty-two week low of $149.03 and a fifty-two week high of $198.33.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.02. AMETEK had a net margin of 19.27% and a return on equity of 16.88%. The business had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.68 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that AMETEK will post 6.8 earnings per share for the current year.

AMETEK Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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. This is an increase from AMETEK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.67%. AMETEK’s payout ratio is currently 18.89%.

Insider Activity at AMETEK

In related news, insider Tony J. Ciampitti sold 16,210 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $197.01, for a total transaction of $3,193,532.10. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 49,490 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,750,024.90. This represents a 24.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Emanuela Speranza sold 6,747 shares of AMETEK stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.90, for a total transaction 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 $5,967,114. The trade was a 18.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.