IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eight brokerages that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $243.14.

IEX has been the topic of several research reports. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of IDEX from $245.00 to $241.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of IDEX from $244.00 to $256.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of IDEX from $248.00 to $258.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on IDEX from $251.00 to $269.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of IDEX by 73.8% in the 3rd quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC now owns 139 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. acquired a new position in IDEX during the third quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Whittier Trust Co. lifted its stake in IDEX by 38.4% during the second quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 209 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $42,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt boosted its holdings in shares of IDEX by 100.0% in the 3rd quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 200 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in shares of IDEX by 31.0% in the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 241 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

IDEX Stock Performance

Shares of IEX opened at $211.11 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $15.99 billion, a PE ratio of 32.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 0.96. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $221.68 and a 200-day moving average of $209.46. IDEX has a one year low of $189.51 and a one year high of $246.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 2.97 and a quick ratio of 2.11.

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

IDEX Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.69 per share. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.31%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 17th. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 42.72%.

IDEX Company 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.