Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Sells 9,561 Shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. cut its holdings in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 23.1% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 31,751 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 9,561 shares during the period. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in IDEX were worth $6,388,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of IEX. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of IDEX in the fourth quarter valued at about $518,000. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its position in shares of IDEX by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 2,418 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $525,000 after purchasing an additional 146 shares during the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of IDEX in the fourth quarter valued at about $61,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of IDEX by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 369,268 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $80,172,000 after purchasing an additional 20,785 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC grew its position in shares of IDEX by 22.9% in the fourth quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 1,426 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $310,000 after purchasing an additional 266 shares during the last quarter. 97.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

IEX has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on IDEX from $250.00 to $236.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Oppenheimer lowered their price target on IDEX from $245.00 to $238.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on IDEX from $265.00 to $236.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on IDEX from $256.00 to $241.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, TD Cowen decreased their target price on IDEX from $240.00 to $230.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given 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 $233.50.

IDEX Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of IEX opened at $199.78 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $15.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.29, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a quick ratio of 2.52, a current ratio of 3.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. IDEX Co. has a 12 month low of $183.76 and a 12 month high of $246.36. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $200.32 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $214.86.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.04 by $0.02. IDEX had a net margin of 18.19% and a return on equity of 16.87%. The company had revenue of $807.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $828.15 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.18 earnings per share. IDEX’s quarterly revenue was down 4.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that IDEX Co. will post 7.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

IDEX Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 26th. Investors of record on Friday, July 12th were given a $0.69 dividend. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.38%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 12th. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.