Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. Invests $30.46 Million in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. purchased a new stake in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 145,547 shares of the industrial products company's stock, valued at approximately $30,462,000. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. owned approximately 0.19% of IDEX at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of IEX. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in shares of IDEX by 1.2% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,177,645 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $252,603,000 after acquiring an additional 14,360 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of IDEX by 9.3% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 5,428 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $1,164,000 after acquiring an additional 460 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in shares of IDEX by 1.0% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 203,412 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $43,390,000 after acquiring an additional 1,930 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of IDEX by 3.0% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 95,836 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $20,557,000 after acquiring an additional 2,820 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of IDEX by 416.0% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 614 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $129,000 after acquiring an additional 495 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.96% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

IDEX Stock Up 4.3%

NYSE IEX traded up $7.85 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $191.32. 834,832 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 577,354. The business's 50-day moving average is $176.39 and its 200-day moving average is $201.21. IDEX Co. has a twelve month low of $153.36 and a twelve month high of $238.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 1.85 and a current ratio of 2.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.07.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The industrial products company reported $1.75 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.64 by $0.11. IDEX had a return on equity of 16.08% and a net margin of 15.45%. The firm had revenue of $814.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $807.25 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.88 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that IDEX Co. will post 8.26 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 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 19th. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.48%. This is a positive change from IDEX's previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. IDEX's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.74%.

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.