IDEX Corporation (NYSE:IEX) Shares Sold by Essex Investment Management Co. LLC

Key Points

• Essex Investment Management Co. LLC reduced its stake in IDEX Corporation by 10.9%, now holding 21,301 shares valued at approximately $3.85 million.
• Analysts are optimistic about IDEX, with several raising target prices, resulting in a consensus target of $218.13 and a "Moderate Buy" rating.
• IDEX recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.71 per share, yielding 1.54%, with a payout ratio of 45.01%.

Essex Investment Management Co. LLC lowered its stake in IDEX Corporation (NYSE:IEX - Free Report) by 10.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 21,301 shares of the industrial products company's stock after selling 2,602 shares during the period. Essex Investment Management Co. LLC's holdings in IDEX were worth $3,855,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of IDEX by 49.1% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,219,596 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $883,119,000 after purchasing an additional 1,388,667 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of IDEX by 8.2% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,666,777 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $767,421,000 after purchasing an additional 277,964 shares during the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc increased its position in shares of IDEX by 11.5% in the 1st quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 2,006,724 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $363,157,000 after purchasing an additional 207,172 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of IDEX by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,912,933 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $399,350,000 after buying an additional 21,758 shares during the last quarter. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of IDEX by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,868,919 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $391,147,000 after buying an additional 17,087 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.96% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of IDEX from $207.00 to $200.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Mizuho set a $185.00 price objective on shares of IDEX in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Robert W. Baird set a $215.00 price objective on shares of IDEX in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Oppenheimer lowered their price objective on shares of IDEX from $224.00 to $212.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of IDEX from $238.00 to $204.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $209.63.

Insider Buying and Selling at IDEX

In other news, CFO Akhil Mahendra sold 250 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.89, for a total value of $45,222.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 5,035 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $910,781.15. This represents a 4.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.50% of the company's stock.

IDEX Stock Performance

NYSE IEX traded down $4.78 on Friday, hitting $158.73. The stock had a trading volume of 790,047 shares, compared to its average volume of 663,616. IDEX Corporation has a one year low of $153.36 and a one year high of $238.22. The company has a quick ratio of 1.99, a current ratio of 3.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The stock has a market cap of $11.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.65, a P/E/G ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.04. The company's 50-day moving average is $179.90 and its two-hundred day moving average is $185.58.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The industrial products company reported $2.07 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.00 by $0.07. IDEX had a net margin of 14.05% and a return on equity of 15.16%. The firm had revenue of $865.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $858.59 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.06 EPS. IDEX's quarterly revenue was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that IDEX Corporation will post 8.26 earnings per share for the current year.

IDEX Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 11th were paid a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 11th. IDEX's dividend payout ratio is currently 45.88%.

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.