Short Interest in AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) Drops By 14.6%

AMETEK, Inc. (NYSE:AME) was the target of a large decline in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,510,000 shares, a decline of 14.6% from the March 15th total of 2,940,000 shares. Currently, 1.1% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 955,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.6 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AME has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com cut AMETEK from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, March 2nd. KeyCorp upped their price target on AMETEK from $182.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 27th. Truist Financial assumed coverage on AMETEK in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $210.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on AMETEK from $192.00 to $188.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AMETEK has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $180.78.

Insider Transactions at AMETEK

In other news, CFO William Joseph Burke sold 17,437 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.51, for a total transaction of $2,938,308.87. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 101,709 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,138,983.59. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other AMETEK news, CFO William Joseph Burke sold 17,437 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $168.51, for a total value of $2,938,308.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 101,709 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,138,983.59. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Thomas M. Montgomery sold 6,891 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $185.38, for a total value of $1,277,453.58. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 21,543 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,993,641.34. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 59,881 shares of company stock worth $10,689,758. 0.61% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in AMETEK by 16.6% during the first quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,186 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $400,000 after buying an additional 312 shares in the last quarter. Global Assets Advisory LLC bought a new position in AMETEK during the first quarter valued at about $3,301,000. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. boosted its stake in AMETEK by 93.3% during the first quarter. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. now owns 574 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $105,000 after buying an additional 277 shares in the last quarter. &PARTNERS bought a new position in AMETEK during the first quarter valued at about $234,000. Finally, Running Oak Capital LLC boosted its stake in AMETEK by 9.6% during the first quarter. Running Oak Capital LLC now owns 63,949 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $11,696,000 after buying an additional 5,603 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.43% of the company’s stock.

AMETEK Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AME opened at $179.04 on Tuesday. AMETEK has a 1-year low of $133.12 and a 1-year high of $186.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.59. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $178.56 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $163.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.40 billion, a PE ratio of 31.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.22.

AMETEK (NYSE:AME) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The technology company reported $1.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.62 by $0.06. AMETEK had a return on equity of 17.96% and a net margin of 19.91%. The firm had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.73 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.52 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that AMETEK 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 8th were paid a $0.28 dividend. This is a boost from AMETEK’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.25. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.63%. 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.