MML Investors Services LLC Has $725,000 Position in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

MML Investors Services LLC cut its holdings in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 2.8% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,379 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 96 shares during the quarter. MML Investors Services LLC’s holdings in IDEX were worth $725,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in IDEX by 73.8% during the 3rd quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC now owns 139 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. bought a new stake in shares of IDEX during the third quarter worth $39,000. Whittier Trust Co. lifted its stake in shares of IDEX by 38.4% during the second quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 209 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the period. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt boosted its holdings in IDEX by 100.0% in the third quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 200 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in IDEX by 31.0% during 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 during the last quarter. 97.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

IDEX Trading Up 1.0 %

IEX opened at $212.38 on Friday. IDEX Co. has a twelve month low of $189.51 and a twelve month high of $246.36. The firm has a market cap of $16.08 billion, a PE ratio of 32.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a current ratio of 2.97. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $221.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $209.16.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The industrial products company reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.89 by $0.01. IDEX had a return on equity of 15.92% and a net margin of 15.35%. The firm had revenue of $798.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $793.05 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.12 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that IDEX Co. will post 7.89 EPS for the current year.

IDEX Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Friday, January 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.69 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 17th. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.30%. IDEX’s payout ratio is 42.72%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on IEX. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of IDEX from $245.00 to $241.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of IDEX from $248.00 to $258.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of IDEX from $244.00 to $256.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on IDEX from $251.00 to $269.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. 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 stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $243.14.

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.