IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) Holdings Lowered by Securian Asset Management Inc.

Securian Asset Management Inc. lowered its stake in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 10.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,772 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 580 shares during the quarter. Securian Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in IDEX were worth $1,036,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of IEX. Planned Solutions Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of IDEX in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $33,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of IDEX in the fourth quarter worth $48,000. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of IDEX during the fourth quarter valued at $50,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in IDEX during the fourth quarter valued at $52,000. Finally, Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA purchased a new stake in IDEX in the 4th quarter worth about $54,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on IEX shares. StockNews.com raised shares of IDEX from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. Citigroup increased their price objective on IDEX from $254.00 to $277.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on IDEX from $245.00 to $252.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Stifel Nicolaus raised IDEX from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $215.00 to $265.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of IDEX from $260.00 to $256.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $250.71.

IDEX Stock Down 1.2 %

IEX opened at $217.07 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $231.61 and a 200-day moving average of $220.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.56, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a current ratio of 3.37, a quick ratio of 2.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. IDEX Co. has a 1-year low of $183.76 and a 1-year high of $246.36.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $807.52 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.09 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that IDEX Co. will post 8.31 earnings per share for the current year.

IDEX Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 31st. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a $0.69 dividend. This is a boost from IDEX’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.64. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.32%.

IDEX 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.