AIA Group Ltd Raises Stock Position in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME)

AIA Group Ltd grew its holdings in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME - Free Report) by 221.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 14,496 shares of the technology company's stock after buying an additional 9,983 shares during the period. AIA Group Ltd's holdings in AMETEK were worth $2,390,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AME. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in AMETEK by 9.6% during the 1st quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 4,306 shares of the technology company's stock worth $573,000 after purchasing an additional 376 shares during the last quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC increased its stake in shares of AMETEK by 12.7% in the 1st quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 84,481 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $11,251,000 after purchasing an additional 9,510 shares during the last quarter. Prudential PLC bought a new position in shares of AMETEK in the 1st quarter valued at $591,000. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its stake in shares of AMETEK by 45.1% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 2,974 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $396,000 after purchasing an additional 924 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of AMETEK by 41.7% in the 1st quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,379 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $316,000 after purchasing an additional 700 shares during the last quarter. 87.43% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on AMETEK from $192.00 to $188.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Truist Financial initiated coverage on AMETEK in a report on Thursday, March 14th. They set a "buy" rating and a $210.00 target price on the stock. KeyCorp lifted their target price on AMETEK from $182.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 27th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded AMETEK from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, March 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $180.78.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other AMETEK news, CFO William Joseph Burke sold 5,973 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $17,178,650.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other AMETEK news, CFO William Joseph Burke sold 5,973 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $17,178,650.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Steven W. Kohlhagen sold 1,400 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.59, for a total value of $252,826.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 28,054 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,066,271.86. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 59,881 shares of company stock worth $10,689,758. Corporate insiders own 0.61% of the company's stock.

AMETEK Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:AME traded up $0.50 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $177.77. The company's stock had a trading volume of 806,642 shares, compared to its average volume of 944,832. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.34, a PEG ratio of 2.84 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 has a 50 day moving average price of $179.26 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $164.13. AMETEK, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $133.12 and a fifty-two week high of $186.32.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The technology company reported $1.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.73 billion. AMETEK had a return on equity of 17.96% and a net margin of 19.91%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.52 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that AMETEK, Inc. will post 6.82 earnings per share for the current year.

AMETEK Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 8th were issued a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 7th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.63%. This is a positive change from AMETEK's previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. AMETEK's dividend payout ratio is presently 19.75%.

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.