Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Has $1.68 Million Stock Holdings in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund raised its stake in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 57.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 8,015 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,914 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in IDEX were worth $1,677,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of IDEX by 73.8% in the third 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 stake in IDEX in the third quarter valued at $39,000. Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new position in shares of IDEX in the 3rd quarter valued at about $86,000. Fred Alger Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of IDEX during the 3rd quarter worth about $89,000. Finally, Millburn Ridgefield Corp raised its holdings in shares of IDEX by 475.0% in the 3rd quarter. Millburn Ridgefield Corp now owns 460 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $99,000 after purchasing an additional 380 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

IDEX Stock Up 0.3 %

IEX stock opened at $194.31 on Friday. IDEX Co. has a fifty-two week low of $189.51 and a fifty-two week high of $246.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 2.53 and a quick ratio of 1.85. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.22, a PEG ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.97. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $207.62 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $211.49.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $2.04 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.03 by $0.01. IDEX had a net margin of 15.45% and a return on equity of 16.08%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that IDEX Co. will post 8.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on IEX. Citigroup lowered their price target on IDEX from $269.00 to $267.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on IDEX from $256.00 to $245.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on IDEX from $244.00 to $256.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, DA Davidson reduced their price objective on shares of IDEX from $225.00 to $215.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, IDEX has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $241.71.

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.