Natixis Grows Stake in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Natixis raised its stake in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 734.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 943 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 830 shares during the quarter. Natixis’ holdings in IDEX were worth $230,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on IEX shares. Oppenheimer lifted 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. StockNews.com downgraded IDEX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on IDEX from $260.00 to $256.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on IDEX from $265.00 to $236.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on IDEX from $254.00 to $277.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $246.57.

IDEX Stock Performance

IEX opened at $206.46 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $204.33 and its 200-day moving average is $219.48. The stock has a market cap of $15.63 billion, a PE ratio of 27.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 3.37, a quick ratio of 2.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. IDEX Co. has a twelve month low of $183.76 and a twelve month high of $246.36.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by $0.12. The company 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.09 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that IDEX Co. will post 8.26 earnings per share for the current year.

IDEX Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 26th. Investors of record on Friday, July 12th were issued a dividend of $0.69 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 12th. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.34%. IDEX’s payout ratio is 36.32%.

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.