AMETEK (NYSE:AME) Upgraded to “Buy” at Bank of America

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) was upgraded by stock analysts at Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Monday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has a $225.00 price target on the technology company’s stock, up from their prior price target of $195.00. Bank of America‘s target price would suggest a potential upside of 20.08% from the company’s current price.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of AMETEK from $205.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of AMETEK from $166.00 to $186.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. StockNews.com raised shares of AMETEK from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. TD Cowen lowered AMETEK from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised AMETEK to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $202.50.

AMETEK Trading Down 0.6 %

NYSE:AME opened at $187.38 on Monday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $183.21 and its 200-day moving average price is $173.12. AMETEK has a 52 week low of $149.03 and a 52 week high of $198.33. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The stock has a market cap of $43.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.64, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 1.15.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Steven W. Kohlhagen sold 1,460 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.59, for a total transaction of $250,521.40. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 23,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,006,454.91. This represents a 5.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider David F. Hermance sold 6,243 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.99, for a total transaction of $1,192,350.57. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,731 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,015,253.69. The trade was a 14.53 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 30,660 shares of company stock worth $5,958,141 in the last 90 days. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On AMETEK

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of AMETEK by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,220,376 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,583,231,000 after buying an additional 24,072 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in AMETEK by 0.8% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,401,656 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $924,308,000 after purchasing an additional 45,459 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in AMETEK by 34.6% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,602,753 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $600,615,000 after purchasing an additional 926,657 shares during the period. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. raised its holdings in AMETEK by 87.9% during the 3rd 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 during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in AMETEK by 8.6% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,882,166 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $313,777,000 after buying an additional 148,447 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.43% of the company’s stock.

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.