Argent Trust Co Makes New Investment in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Argent Trust Co purchased a new stake in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 1,461 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $294,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Principal Securities Inc. bought a new position in IDEX in the 4th quarter worth about $61,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of IDEX by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 369,268 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $80,172,000 after acquiring an additional 20,785 shares during the period. UBS Group AG grew its stake in IDEX by 177.3% during the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 57,255 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $12,431,000 after acquiring an additional 36,606 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC increased its holdings in IDEX by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 68,187 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $14,804,000 after acquiring an additional 2,399 shares during the period. Finally, Quest Partners LLC purchased a new stake in IDEX in the 4th quarter worth approximately $160,000. 97.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on IEX shares. Argus lowered shares of IDEX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. DA Davidson reduced 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. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on IDEX from $256.00 to $241.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 2nd. TD Cowen cut their price objective on IDEX from $240.00 to $230.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of IDEX from $265.00 to $236.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $233.50.

IDEX Price Performance

IEX opened at $208.73 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 3.41, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.46, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.95. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $200.94 and a 200-day moving average price of $214.00. IDEX Co. has a 12-month low of $183.76 and a 12-month high of $246.36.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.04 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $807.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $828.15 million. IDEX had a return on equity of 16.87% and a net margin of 18.19%. IDEX’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.18 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that IDEX Co. will post 7.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

IDEX Announces Dividend

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