IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) Shares Bought by Metis Global Partners LLC

Metis Global Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 3.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 6,166 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 178 shares during the quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC’s holdings in IDEX were worth $1,339,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Impax Asset Management Group plc boosted its stake in 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 buying an additional 84,502 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in IDEX by 3.3% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,143,583 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $237,890,000 after buying an additional 36,928 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of IDEX by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 785,716 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $163,445,000 after purchasing an additional 45,120 shares during the last quarter. Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt lifted its stake in shares of IDEX by 420.8% in the 4th quarter. Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt now owns 781,172 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $169,600,000 after purchasing an additional 631,172 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of IDEX by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 593,542 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $123,469,000 after purchasing an additional 7,559 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

IEX has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus raised IDEX from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $215.00 to $265.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on IDEX from $245.00 to $252.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. StockNews.com lowered IDEX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on IDEX from $260.00 to $256.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on IDEX from $254.00 to $277.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $250.71.

IDEX Price Performance

IEX stock opened at $222.07 on Thursday. IDEX Co. has a 1 year low of $183.76 and a 1 year high of $246.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.22, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 3.37 and a quick ratio of 2.45. The business’s 50-day moving average is $234.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is $217.91.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by $0.12. IDEX had a net margin of 17.89% and a return on equity of 17.60%. The company had revenue of $801.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $807.52 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.09 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that IDEX Co. will post 8.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

IDEX Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a $0.69 dividend. This is a positive change from IDEX’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.64. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio is currently 33.68%.

IDEX Company Profile

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.