IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) Receives $242.86 Average PT from Brokerages

IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eight analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $242.86.

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on shares of IDEX from $245.00 to $241.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on IDEX from $248.00 to $258.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on IDEX from $269.00 to $267.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on IDEX from $244.00 to $256.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On IDEX

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in IDEX by 44.1% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 9,848 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,981,000 after purchasing an additional 3,012 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in shares of IDEX by 3.3% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 25,294 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $5,089,000 after buying an additional 818 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of IDEX by 20.0% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 470,672 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $94,698,000 after buying an additional 78,551 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of IDEX during the second quarter valued at approximately $11,272,000. Finally, Argent Trust Co purchased a new position in IDEX in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $294,000. Institutional investors own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

IDEX Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of IEX stock opened at $219.90 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $219.88 and a 200 day moving average of $210.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 2.97 and a quick ratio of 2.11. IDEX has a 1-year low of $189.51 and a 1-year high of $246.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.65 billion, a PE ratio of 34.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 0.97.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The industrial products company reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.89 by $0.01. IDEX had a return on equity of 15.92% and a net margin of 15.35%. The firm had revenue of $798.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $793.05 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.12 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that IDEX will post 7.89 earnings per share for the current year.

IDEX Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 17th will be given a dividend of $0.69 per share. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 17th. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.72%.

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.