IDEX (NYSE:IEX) Downgraded by StockNews.com to “Hold”

StockNews.com cut shares of IDEX (NYSE:IEX) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report released on Thursday.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on the company. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on IDEX from $260.00 to $256.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Stifel Nicolaus raised IDEX from a hold rating to a buy rating and raised their price target for the company from $215.00 to $265.00 in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of IDEX from $245.00 to $252.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an outperform rating and issued a $255.00 target price on shares of IDEX in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of IDEX from $254.00 to $277.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, IDEX presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $250.71.

IDEX Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:IEX traded up $1.91 during trading on Thursday, hitting $222.33. 210,484 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 378,721. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.37, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99. IDEX has a one year low of $183.76 and a one year high of $246.36. The company has a quick ratio of 2.45, a current ratio of 3.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The business’s fifty day moving average is $235.22 and its 200-day moving average is $217.49.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.76 by $0.12. IDEX had a return on equity of 17.60% and a net margin of 17.89%. The firm had revenue of $801.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $807.52 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.09 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that IDEX will post 8.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On IDEX

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of IEX. Planned Solutions Inc. bought a new stake in shares of IDEX in the 4th quarter worth approximately $33,000. Riverview Trust Co bought a new position in shares of IDEX in the first quarter valued at $35,000. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in shares of IDEX during the 4th quarter valued at $36,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of IDEX during the 4th quarter worth $48,000. Finally, VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of IDEX in the 4th quarter worth $50,000. 97.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.