Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. Purchases 233 Shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its position in shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 106.4% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 452 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 233 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co.’s holdings in IDEX were worth $91,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Creative Planning increased its holdings in shares of IDEX by 8.2% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 5,347 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,076,000 after acquiring an additional 407 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its stake in IDEX by 1.2% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 45,557 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $9,166,000 after purchasing an additional 518 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in IDEX by 1,541.6% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 138,744 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $27,915,000 after purchasing an additional 130,292 shares in the last quarter. MBB Public Markets I LLC purchased a new stake in shares of IDEX during the second quarter valued at about $882,000. Finally, D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of IDEX by 247.0% in the 2nd quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 198,170 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $39,872,000 after buying an additional 141,064 shares in the last quarter. 97.96% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on IEX. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of IDEX from $265.00 to $236.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on IDEX from $256.00 to $241.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 2nd. DA Davidson dropped their target price on IDEX from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 5th. StockNews.com cut IDEX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. Finally, Argus lowered IDEX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $238.29.

IDEX Price Performance

NYSE:IEX opened at $211.49 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $16.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.68, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.95. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $202.97 and its two-hundred day moving average is $210.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a current ratio of 3.41. IDEX Co. has a one year low of $183.76 and a one year high of $246.36.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $807.20 million for 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%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 4.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.18 EPS. Research analysts expect that IDEX Co. will post 7.88 EPS for the current year.

IDEX Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 11th will be given a dividend of $0.69 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 11th. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.31%. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.13%.

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.