Albert D Mason Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Albert D Mason Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 1.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,532 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the quarter. Albert D Mason Inc.’s holdings in IDEX were worth $948,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in IEX. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of IDEX by 108.4% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,830,929 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $607,234,000 after buying an additional 1,472,456 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in shares of IDEX by 9,424.6% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,032,277 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $211,473,000 after purchasing an additional 1,021,439 shares during the last quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of IDEX by 28.8% in the 3rd quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 1,223,676 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $262,479,000 after purchasing an additional 273,460 shares in the last quarter. DF Dent & Co. Inc. bought a new position in shares of IDEX during the third quarter worth about $31,747,000. Finally, D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. grew its stake in IDEX by 247.0% in the second quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 198,170 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $39,872,000 after purchasing an additional 141,064 shares in the last quarter. 97.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on IEX. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on IDEX from $248.00 to $258.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on IDEX from $269.00 to $267.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of IDEX from $245.00 to $241.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of IDEX from $244.00 to $256.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $242.86.

IDEX Stock Performance

Shares of IEX opened at $215.67 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a current ratio of 2.97. IDEX Co. has a 1 year low of $189.51 and a 1 year high of $246.36. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $220.31 and a 200-day moving average of $210.34. The company has a market cap of $16.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.97.

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

IDEX Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 17th will be given 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 1.28%. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.72%.

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.