IDEX Corporation (NYSE:IEX) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of IDEX Corporation (NYSE:IEX) have earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the six research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $198.8571.

IEX has been the topic of several recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of IDEX from $204.00 to $191.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of IDEX in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. DA Davidson set a $180.00 price objective on IDEX and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their target price on IDEX from $200.00 to $195.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Oppenheimer set a $210.00 price target on IDEX in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On IDEX

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Assetmark Inc. raised its position in shares of IDEX by 235.5% during the second quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,899 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $333,000 after purchasing an additional 1,333 shares during the period. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd acquired a new stake in IDEX during the 1st quarter worth approximately $909,000. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in IDEX during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $275,000. Swedbank AB lifted its stake in IDEX by 16.2% in the first quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 55,396 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $10,025,000 after buying an additional 7,726 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of IDEX by 15.2% in the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 101,019 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $17,736,000 after buying an additional 13,294 shares during the period. 97.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

IDEX Price Performance

Shares of IEX stock opened at $161.58 on Friday. IDEX has a 12 month low of $153.36 and a 12 month high of $237.38. The company has a market capitalization of $12.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 1.04. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $165.09 and a two-hundred day moving average of $171.92. The company has a current ratio of 2.93, a quick ratio of 2.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last issued its earnings results on Friday, December 16th. The industrial products company reported $1.79 EPS for the quarter. IDEX had a return on equity of 15.20% and a net margin of 13.97%.The business had revenue of $712.00 million during the quarter. As a group, equities analysts expect that IDEX will post 8.26 EPS for the current year.

IDEX announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Thursday, September 18th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the industrial products company to buy up to 8.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

IDEX Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 16th will be paid a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 16th. IDEX’s payout ratio is currently 44.94%.

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.