Vanguard Group Inc. Grows Stock Position in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 0.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 9,202,074 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 21,873 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 12.16% of IDEX worth $2,245,490,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Intech Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of IDEX by 346.6% during the first quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 13,799 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $3,367,000 after purchasing an additional 10,709 shares during the last quarter. CCLA Investment Management raised its stake in shares of IDEX by 7.7% during the first quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 425,788 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $104,460,000 after purchasing an additional 30,277 shares during the last quarter. Blair William & Co. IL raised its position in IDEX by 6.3% in the first quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 3,104 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $757,000 after acquiring an additional 183 shares in the last quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC raised its position in IDEX by 31.3% in the first quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 12,628 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $3,082,000 after acquiring an additional 3,008 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in IDEX by 20.6% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 91,755 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $22,390,000 after acquiring an additional 15,650 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

IDEX Price Performance

Shares of IEX stock traded down $3.23 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $202.97. The stock had a trading volume of 388,780 shares, compared to its average volume of 503,856. 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 company has a market cap of $15.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.71, 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 business has a 50-day simple moving average of $206.36 and a 200 day simple moving average of $219.81.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $1.88 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $801.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 last year, the company earned $2.09 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that IDEX Co. will post 8.27 earnings per share for the current year.

IDEX Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 26th. Investors of record on Friday, July 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.69 per share. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.36%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 12th. IDEX’s payout ratio is currently 36.32%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on IEX. StockNews.com cut IDEX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 11th. Citigroup increased their price objective on IDEX from $254.00 to $277.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on IDEX from $265.00 to $236.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on IDEX from $260.00 to $256.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price target on IDEX from $245.00 to $252.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, IDEX currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $246.57.

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.