Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA Raises Stock Holdings in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 3.3% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 25,294 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 818 shares during the quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA’s holdings in IDEX were worth $5,089,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Boston Trust Walden Corp lifted its stake in shares of IDEX by 3.3% during the second quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 223,892 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $45,047,000 after buying an additional 7,222 shares during the period. UBS Group AG boosted its holdings in shares of IDEX by 177.3% during the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 57,255 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $12,431,000 after purchasing an additional 36,606 shares during the last quarter. Qsemble Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in IDEX in the 2nd quarter valued at about $3,627,000. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in shares of IDEX by 241.3% during the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 37,561 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $9,166,000 after acquiring an additional 26,557 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its position in shares of IDEX by 90.1% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 69,984 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $17,077,000 after acquiring an additional 33,162 shares during the last quarter. 97.96% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on IEX shares. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of IDEX from $265.00 to $236.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. TD Cowen lowered their price target on IDEX from $240.00 to $230.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 7th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on IDEX from $250.00 to $236.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Oppenheimer dropped their target price on shares of IDEX from $245.00 to $238.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Argus cut shares of IDEX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $233.50.

IDEX Stock Performance

NYSE:IEX opened at $208.73 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $201.03 and a two-hundred day moving average of $213.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 3.41 and a quick ratio of 2.52. The stock has a market cap of $15.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.46, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.95. IDEX Co. has a 1-year low of $183.76 and a 1-year high of $246.36.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.06 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.04 by $0.02. IDEX had a return on equity of 16.87% and a net margin of 18.19%. The firm had revenue of $807.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $828.15 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.18 EPS. IDEX’s quarterly revenue was down 4.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that IDEX Co. will post 7.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

IDEX Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.69 per share. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.32%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 11th. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.32%.

IDEX Company 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.