IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) has received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eight analysts that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and six have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $238.29.

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. DA Davidson decreased their target price on IDEX from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Oppenheimer reduced their target price on shares of IDEX from $245.00 to $238.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on shares of IDEX from $256.00 to $241.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. StockNews.com lowered shares of IDEX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. Finally, Argus downgraded IDEX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On IDEX

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in IEX. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in IDEX by 7.5% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,964,956 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,943,609,000 after purchasing an additional 555,250 shares during the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its holdings in shares of IDEX by 75.6% during the 2nd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 519,124 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $104,179,000 after acquiring an additional 223,422 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in IDEX by 151.9% in the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 342,170 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $83,767,000 after acquiring an additional 206,345 shares in the last quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. increased its stake in IDEX by 247.0% in the second quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 198,170 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $39,872,000 after acquiring an additional 141,064 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC raised its position in IDEX by 1,541.6% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 138,744 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $27,915,000 after purchasing an additional 130,292 shares in the last quarter. 97.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

IDEX Stock Up 0.3 %

IEX stock opened at $208.45 on Friday. IDEX has a 1-year low of $183.76 and a 1-year high of $246.36. The stock has a market cap of $15.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.43, a P/E/G ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.95. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $202.62 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $210.95. The company has a current ratio of 3.41, a quick ratio of 2.52 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 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $828.15 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.18 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that IDEX will post 7.88 EPS for the current year.

IDEX Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 25th. Investors of record on Friday, October 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.69 per share. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.32%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 11th. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio is 36.32%.

About IDEX

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.