AMETEK (NYSE:AME) Announces Share Buyback Plan

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) declared that its Board of Directors 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 repurchase up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

AMETEK Stock Up 0.9 %

NYSE:AME opened at $184.54 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $42.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.15, a PEG ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.16. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $184.29 and its 200-day moving average price is $176.65. AMETEK has a 1-year low of $149.03 and a 1-year high of $198.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 0.84.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The technology company reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $1.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.82 billion. AMETEK had a return on equity of 16.88% and a net margin of 19.27%. The company’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.68 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that AMETEK will post 6.8 EPS for the current year.

AMETEK Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. AMETEK’s dividend payout ratio is 18.89%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on AME. StockNews.com cut AMETEK from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Mizuho increased their price target 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. Bank of America raised shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $195.00 to $225.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of AMETEK from $200.00 to $197.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, BNP Paribas raised shares of AMETEK from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, AMETEK presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $204.67.

Insider Activity at AMETEK

In other news, insider Emanuela Speranza sold 6,747 shares of AMETEK stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $195.90, for a total value of $1,321,737.30. Following the sale, the insider now owns 30,460 shares in the company, valued at $5,967,114. This trade represents a 18.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Tony J. Ciampitti sold 16,210 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was 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 trade represents a 24.67 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.61% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.