IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) Shares Sold by MetLife Investment Management LLC

MetLife Investment Management LLC cut its stake in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 2.5% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 19,684 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 505 shares during the period. MetLife Investment Management LLC’s holdings in IDEX were worth $4,222,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in IEX. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of IDEX by 73.8% in the 3rd quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC now owns 139 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of IDEX in the third quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt grew its position in shares of IDEX by 100.0% during the third quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 200 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. EdgeRock Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of IDEX in the 2nd quarter valued at $41,000. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. increased its holdings in shares of IDEX by 38.4% in the 2nd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 209 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

IEX has been the topic of several research reports. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of IDEX from $232.00 to $244.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. TD Cowen lowered their price target on IDEX from $240.00 to $230.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Oppenheimer reduced their price objective on IDEX from $245.00 to $238.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Argus cut IDEX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on IDEX from $236.00 to $248.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, IDEX currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $241.14.

IDEX Price Performance

Shares of IEX opened at $230.63 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.46 billion, a PE ratio of 35.70, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 0.96. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $217.66 and its two-hundred day moving average is $208.15. IDEX Co. has a twelve month low of $189.51 and a twelve month high of $246.36. The company has a current ratio of 2.97, a quick ratio of 2.11 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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.89 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $798.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $793.05 million. IDEX had a return on equity of 15.92% and a net margin of 15.35%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.12 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that IDEX Co. will post 7.89 earnings per share for the current year.

IDEX Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 17th will be issued a $0.69 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 17th. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.20%. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.