IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) Short Interest Down 7.1% in March

IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) was the target of a significant decline in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 748,600 shares, a decline of 7.1% from the March 15th total of 805,500 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 377,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.0 days. Approximately 1.0% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $255.00 price target on shares of IDEX in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of IDEX from $254.00 to $277.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. StockNews.com raised shares of IDEX from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised shares of IDEX from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $215.00 to $265.00 in a report on Thursday, February 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $238.00.

IDEX Price Performance

Shares of IEX traded down $1.24 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $229.25. 355,764 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 276,633. IDEX has a 1-year low of $183.76 and a 1-year high of $246.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 2.05 and a current ratio of 2.89. The company has a 50 day moving average of $236.34 and a 200-day moving average of $215.73. The stock has a market cap of $17.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.97.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The industrial products company reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.05. IDEX had a net margin of 18.21% and a return on equity of 18.56%. The company had revenue of $788.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $767.96 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.01 EPS. IDEX’s revenue was down 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that IDEX will post 8.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of IDEX

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of IEX. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in IDEX by 34.2% during the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,251 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $623,000 after acquiring an additional 829 shares in the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund purchased a new stake in shares of IDEX in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,058,000. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS grew its stake in shares of IDEX by 6.6% in the 1st quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 10,173 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,950,000 after buying an additional 630 shares during the period. Yousif Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of IDEX by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 16,223 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $3,110,000 after buying an additional 555 shares during the period. Finally, Sei Investments Co. grew its stake in shares of IDEX by 24.2% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 82,824 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $15,877,000 after buying an additional 16,117 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

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.