Clearbridge Investments LLC Boosts Position in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 0.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 335,672 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 84 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC owned 0.44% of IDEX worth $81,911,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in IEX. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of IDEX during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $237,425,000. Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt increased its stake in shares of IDEX by 420.8% during the fourth 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 during the period. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado increased its stake in shares of IDEX by 4,080.8% during the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 313,725 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $68,113,000 after buying an additional 306,221 shares during the period. Maren Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of IDEX during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $49,789,000. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in shares of IDEX by 151.9% during the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 342,170 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $83,767,000 after buying an additional 206,345 shares during the period. 97.96% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on IEX. Citigroup upped their price target on IDEX from $254.00 to $277.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on IDEX from $265.00 to $236.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. StockNews.com cut IDEX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on IDEX from $245.00 to $252.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on IDEX from $260.00 to $256.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, IDEX has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $246.57.

IDEX Stock Down 2.5 %

IDEX stock traded down $5.19 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $198.71. The company had a trading volume of 665,686 shares, compared to its average volume of 426,057. 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 moving average price is $205.54 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $219.77. IDEX Co. has a 12 month low of $183.76 and a 12 month high of $246.36. The company has a market capitalization of $15.04 billion, a PE ratio of 26.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.95.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $1.88 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.76 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $801.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $807.52 million. IDEX had a return on equity of 17.60% and a net margin of 17.89%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.09 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that IDEX Co. will post 8.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

IDEX Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.69 per share. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 12th. IDEX’s payout ratio is currently 36.32%.

IDEX 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.