Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd Grows Holdings in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd raised its position in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 2.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 7,320 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 194 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd’s holdings in IDEX were worth $1,589,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in shares of IDEX by 1,196.4% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 135,825 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $29,598,000 after purchasing an additional 125,348 shares in the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc increased its stake in shares of IDEX by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 2,190,741 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $475,632,000 after purchasing an additional 84,502 shares in the last quarter. Lincoln National Corp increased its stake in shares of IDEX by 7.1% during the third quarter. Lincoln National Corp now owns 1,564 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $325,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG increased its stake in shares of IDEX by 13.3% during the third quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 244,610 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $50,884,000 after purchasing an additional 28,661 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates increased its stake in shares of IDEX by 11.2% during the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 76,465 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $16,601,000 after purchasing an additional 7,684 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

IDEX Stock Performance

NYSE:IEX opened at $224.64 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 2.89 and a quick ratio of 2.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.56, a PEG ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97. The company’s 50-day moving average is $236.58 and its two-hundred day moving average is $216.55. IDEX Co. has a 1-year low of $183.76 and a 1-year high of $246.36.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.76 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $801.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $807.52 million. IDEX had a net margin of 17.89% and a return on equity of 17.88%. IDEX’s revenue was down 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.09 EPS. Analysts forecast that IDEX Co. will post 8.34 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of IDEX from $245.00 to $252.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $255.00 price objective on shares of IDEX in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Stifel Nicolaus raised shares of IDEX from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $215.00 to $265.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of IDEX from $254.00 to $277.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of IDEX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $238.78.

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.