Handelsinvest Investeringsforvaltning Reduces Position in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Handelsinvest Investeringsforvaltning cut its holdings in shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 34.2% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,516 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 787 shares during the period. Handelsinvest Investeringsforvaltning’s holdings in IDEX were worth $370,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Impax Asset Management Group plc boosted its position in shares of IDEX by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 2,190,741 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $475,632,000 after buying an additional 84,502 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of IDEX during the 4th quarter valued at about $237,425,000. Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt lifted its position in shares of IDEX by 420.8% during the 4th quarter. Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt now owns 781,172 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $169,600,000 after buying an additional 631,172 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of IDEX by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 608,744 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $132,164,000 after buying an additional 15,202 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of IDEX by 19.9% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 492,810 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $106,994,000 after buying an additional 81,780 shares in the last quarter. 97.96% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

IEX has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on IDEX from $245.00 to $252.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on IDEX from $260.00 to $256.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. StockNews.com raised IDEX from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 18th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on IDEX from $254.00 to $277.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $255.00 target price on shares of IDEX in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, IDEX presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $250.71.

IDEX Price Performance

IEX opened at $195.26 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $211.19 and a 200 day moving average of $220.88. IDEX Co. has a 52-week low of $183.76 and a 52-week 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 stock has a market cap of $14.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.69, a PEG ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 0.95.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by $0.12. IDEX had a return on equity of 17.60% and a net margin of 17.89%. The company had revenue of $801.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $807.52 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.09 EPS. IDEX’s revenue was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that IDEX Co. will post 8.31 EPS for the current year.

IDEX Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 12th will be issued a $0.69 dividend. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.41%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 12th. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio is 36.32%.

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.