IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) have been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eight ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and six have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $241.14.

A number of brokerages have commented on IEX. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on IDEX from $245.00 to $241.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on IDEX from $232.00 to $244.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com cut IDEX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 11th. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on IDEX from $240.00 to $230.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on IDEX from $236.00 to $248.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st.

Institutional Trading of IDEX

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in IDEX by 31.0% in the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 241 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $48,000 after buying an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in IDEX by 19.9% in the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 344 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $72,000 after buying an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. boosted its stake in IDEX by 38.4% in the second quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 209 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in IDEX by 73.8% in the third quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC now owns 139 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund boosted its stake in IDEX by 1.0% in the second quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 6,476 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,303,000 after buying an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

IDEX Price Performance

Shares of NYSE IEX opened at $219.00 on Tuesday. IDEX has a twelve month low of $189.33 and a twelve month high of $246.36. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $207.06 and a 200 day simple moving average of $207.36. The company has a market capitalization of $16.58 billion, a PE ratio of 33.90, a P/E/G ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a quick ratio of 2.52, a current ratio of 2.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The industrial products company reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.89 by $0.01. IDEX had a net margin of 15.35% and a return on equity of 15.92%. The firm had revenue of $798.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $793.05 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.12 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that IDEX will post 7.87 EPS for the current year.

IDEX Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 11th were issued a dividend of $0.69 per share. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 11th. IDEX’s payout ratio is 42.72%.

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.