Empirical Finance LLC Acquires 91 Shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Empirical Finance LLC increased its position in shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 3.6% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,593 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 91 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in IDEX were worth $633,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Riverview Trust Co bought a new stake in IDEX during the 1st quarter worth $35,000. Planned Solutions Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of IDEX during the fourth quarter worth $33,000. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in shares of IDEX in the fourth quarter worth $36,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC purchased a new stake in IDEX during the fourth quarter valued at about $48,000. Finally, VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC purchased a new stake in IDEX during the fourth quarter valued at about $50,000. 97.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

IDEX Stock Performance

IEX stock opened at $204.46 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.48 billion, a PE ratio of 26.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 0.95. IDEX Co. has a 12-month low of $183.76 and a 12-month high of $246.36. 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’s 50 day simple moving average is $207.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $220.09.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.76 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $801.00 million for 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%. The company’s revenue was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.09 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that IDEX Co. will post 8.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

IDEX Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.69 per share. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 12th. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.32%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

IEX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. 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. Citigroup raised their target price on IDEX from $254.00 to $277.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. StockNews.com cut IDEX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. Oppenheimer raised their target price on IDEX from $245.00 to $252.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $255.00 price objective on shares of IDEX in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, IDEX has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $250.71.

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.