Clearbridge Investments LLC Acquires 89 Shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 0.0% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 335,761 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 89 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC’s holdings in IDEX were worth $67,555,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of IEX. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in IDEX by 31.0% in the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 241 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in IDEX by 19.9% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 344 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $72,000 after buying an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. increased its stake in IDEX by 38.4% in the 2nd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 209 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Czech National Bank raised its holdings in shares of IDEX by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 13,306 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $3,247,000 after acquiring an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund grew its holdings in shares of IDEX by 1.0% in the second quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 6,476 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,303,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of IDEX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on IDEX from $250.00 to $236.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on IDEX from $256.00 to $241.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. DA Davidson cut their target price on IDEX from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on IDEX from $265.00 to $236.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. 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, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $233.50.

IDEX Stock Performance

Shares of IDEX stock opened at $211.32 on Thursday. IDEX Co. has a 52 week low of $183.76 and a 52 week high of $246.36. The company has a market capitalization of $16.00 billion, a PE ratio of 27.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.95. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $202.09 and its two-hundred day moving average is $212.12. The company has a quick ratio of 2.52, a current ratio of 3.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.06 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.04 by $0.02. IDEX had a net margin of 18.19% and a return on equity of 16.87%. The company had revenue of $807.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $828.15 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.18 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 4.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that IDEX Co. will post 7.88 earnings per share for the current year.

IDEX Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 25th. Investors of record on Friday, October 11th will be issued a $0.69 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 11th. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.31%. IDEX’s payout ratio is 36.32%.

IDEX 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.