IDEX Corporation $IEX Shares Sold by Legal & General Group Plc

Legal & General Group Plc trimmed its holdings in IDEX Corporation (NYSE:IEX) by 9.7% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 477,230 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 51,438 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in IDEX were worth $83,787,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Assetmark Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of IDEX by 35.7% in the 1st quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 566 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $102,000 after buying an additional 149 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in IDEX by 3.1% in the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 163,743 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $29,633,000 after acquiring an additional 4,957 shares in the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC grew its holdings in shares of IDEX by 4.6% during the first quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 2,582 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $467,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its position in shares of IDEX by 174.0% during the first quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 131,845 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $23,860,000 after purchasing an additional 83,718 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LPL Financial LLC lifted its holdings in shares of IDEX by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 20,068 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $3,632,000 after purchasing an additional 366 shares during the last quarter. 97.96% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

IDEX Stock Up 2.2%

IEX stock opened at $173.63 on Wednesday. IDEX Corporation has a one year low of $153.36 and a one year high of $235.65. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.00 billion, a PE ratio of 27.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 2.13 and a current ratio of 2.93. The company has a fifty day moving average of $165.64 and a 200-day moving average of $171.49.

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

IDEX Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 16th. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.6%. IDEX’s payout ratio is presently 44.94%.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on IDEX from $200.00 to $195.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered 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 reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of IDEX in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Oppenheimer set a $210.00 price target on shares of IDEX in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Finally, DA Davidson set a $180.00 price objective on shares of IDEX and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $198.86.

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.