Ameriprise Financial Inc. Sells 21,129 Shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Ameriprise Financial Inc. lessened its holdings in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX - Free Report) by 8.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 225,251 shares of the industrial products company's stock after selling 21,129 shares during the quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. owned 0.30% of IDEX worth $47,143,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of IEX. Quarry LP bought a new stake in IDEX during the fourth quarter worth about $49,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its holdings in shares of IDEX by 35.2% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 407 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $85,000 after acquiring an additional 106 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of IDEX by 129.1% in the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 417 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $87,000 after acquiring an additional 235 shares during the last quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of IDEX by 24,700.0% in the fourth quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 496 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $104,000 after acquiring an additional 494 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan bought a new position in shares of IDEX in the fourth quarter worth about $105,000. Institutional investors own 97.96% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on IEX. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of IDEX from $264.00 to $201.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of IDEX from $206.00 to $208.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Robert W. Baird set a $215.00 target price on shares of IDEX in a report on Friday, May 2nd. DA Davidson lowered their price objective on IDEX from $225.00 to $215.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Mizuho set a $175.00 price objective on IDEX in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $211.25.

IDEX Stock Performance

NYSE:IEX opened at $183.40 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $13.85 billion, a PE ratio of 27.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $176.39 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $201.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 1.85 and a current ratio of 2.53. IDEX Co. has a fifty-two week low of $153.36 and a fifty-two week high of $238.22.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The industrial products company reported $1.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.64 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $814.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $807.25 million. IDEX had a net margin of 15.45% and a return on equity of 16.08%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.88 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that IDEX Co. will post 8.26 earnings per share for the current year.

IDEX Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Investors of record on Monday, May 19th will be given a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 19th. This is an increase from IDEX's previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. IDEX's payout ratio is presently 43.74%.

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.

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