Congress Asset Management Co. MA Reduces Stock Holdings in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Congress Asset Management Co. MA lessened its stake in shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 99.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,419 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 539,682 shares during the quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. MA’s holdings in IDEX were worth $742,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in IDEX in the fourth quarter valued at $237,425,000. Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt lifted its holdings in shares of IDEX by 420.8% in the 4th quarter. Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt now owns 781,172 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $169,600,000 after purchasing an additional 631,172 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado boosted its position in shares of IDEX by 4,080.8% in the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 313,725 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $68,113,000 after purchasing an additional 306,221 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in IDEX by 316.9% during the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 368,849 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $76,667,000 after buying an additional 280,385 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Maren Capital LLC acquired a new position in IDEX during the fourth quarter worth approximately $49,789,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of IDEX from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 18th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $255.00 target price on shares of IDEX in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Oppenheimer raised their price target on IDEX from $245.00 to $252.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Citigroup upped their price objective on IDEX from $254.00 to $277.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on IDEX from $260.00 to $256.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, IDEX presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $250.71.

IDEX Stock Performance

Shares of IEX stock opened at $200.29 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 3.37, a quick ratio of 2.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $219.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $221.54. The company has a market cap of $15.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 0.99. IDEX Co. has a 12-month low of $183.76 and a 12-month high of $246.36.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.76 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $801.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $807.52 million. IDEX had a return on equity of 17.60% and a net margin of 17.89%. IDEX’s revenue was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.09 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that IDEX Co. will post 8.31 EPS for the current year.

IDEX Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th were given a dividend of $0.69 per share. This is a positive change from IDEX’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.64. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 16th. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.32%.

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.