IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) Short Interest Up 13.3% in August

IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) was the target of a large increase in short interest during the month of August. As of August 15th, there was short interest totalling 898,200 shares, an increase of 13.3% from the July 31st total of 793,000 shares. Currently, 1.2% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 521,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.7 days.

Institutional Trading of IDEX

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of IEX. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in IDEX in the fourth quarter worth $518,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its stake in shares of IDEX by 25.1% during the fourth quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 57,005 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $12,376,000 after buying an additional 11,442 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in shares of IDEX by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 10,457 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,270,000 after buying an additional 627 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of IDEX by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 429,047 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $93,150,000 after buying an additional 15,659 shares during the period. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI increased its stake in shares of IDEX by 7.3% during the fourth quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 20,187 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $4,341,000 after buying an additional 1,382 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

IDEX Stock Up 0.6 %

NYSE IEX opened at $206.48 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 2.45 and a current ratio of 3.41. The company has a market capitalization of $15.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.95. IDEX has a one year low of $183.76 and a one year high of $246.36. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $200.15 and a 200-day moving average price of $217.00.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.06 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.04 by $0.02. IDEX had a return on equity of 16.87% and a net margin of 18.19%. The firm had revenue of $807.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $828.15 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.18 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 4.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that IDEX will post 7.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

IDEX Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 12th were paid a $0.69 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 12th. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.34%. IDEX’s payout ratio is 36.32%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of IDEX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 11th. Oppenheimer reduced their price target on shares of IDEX from $245.00 to $238.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 5th. DA Davidson reduced their price target on shares of IDEX from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of IDEX from $250.00 to $236.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Argus downgraded IDEX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $233.50.

IDEX Company Profile

IDEX Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides applied solutions worldwide. The company operates through three segments: Fluid & Metering Technologies (FMT), Health & Science Technologies (HST), and Fire & Safety/Diversified Products (FSDP). The FMT segment designs, produces, and distributes positive displacement pumps, valves, small volume provers, flow meters, injectors, and other fluid-handling pump modules and systems, as well as flow monitoring and other services for the food, chemical, general industrial, water and wastewater, agricultural, and energy industries.