Covea Finance Boosts Stock Position in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Covea Finance lifted its position in shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 70.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,500 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 6,000 shares during the period. Covea Finance’s holdings in IDEX were worth $3,035,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of IEX. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of IDEX by 345.0% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,345 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $471,000 after acquiring an additional 1,818 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position 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 during the period. Thoroughbred Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in IDEX in the second quarter worth $201,000. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in IDEX by 20.1% during the second quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 11,327 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $2,279,000 after buying an additional 1,894 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings 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 during the period. Institutional investors own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

IEX has been the topic of several recent research reports. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on IDEX from $245.00 to $241.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of IDEX from $248.00 to $258.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of IDEX from $269.00 to $267.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of IDEX from $244.00 to $256.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $242.86.

IDEX Stock Performance

IDEX stock opened at $214.55 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $16.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.21, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a current ratio of 2.97. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $221.40 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $210.02. IDEX Co. has a fifty-two week low of $189.51 and a fifty-two week high of $246.36.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The industrial products company reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.89 by $0.01. IDEX had a return on equity of 15.92% and a net margin of 15.35%. The business had revenue of $798.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $793.05 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.12 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that IDEX Co. will post 7.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

IDEX Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 17th will be issued a $0.69 dividend. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 17th. IDEX’s payout ratio is 42.72%.

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.