ING Groep NV Sells 4,488 Shares of IDEX Corporation (NYSE:IEX)

Key Points

• ING Groep NV reduced its stake in IDEX Corporation by 46.4%, selling 4,488 shares and resulting in total holdings of 5,183 shares valued at approximately $938,000.
• Akhil Mahendra, the CFO of IDEX, sold 250 shares for $45,222.50, representing a 4.73% decrease in his ownership.
• IDEX reported earnings of $2.07 per share, exceeding expectations, alongside a 7.2% year-over-year revenue increase to $865.40 million.

ING Groep NV lowered its position in shares of IDEX Corporation (NYSE:IEX - Free Report) by 46.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,183 shares of the industrial products company's stock after selling 4,488 shares during the period. ING Groep NV's holdings in IDEX were worth $938,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in IEX. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of IDEX by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 9,655 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $2,021,000 after acquiring an additional 314 shares in the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC increased its position in shares of IDEX by 13.6% during the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 19,702 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $4,123,000 after acquiring an additional 2,363 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership bought a new stake in shares of IDEX during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $448,000. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of IDEX by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 3,128 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $655,000 after acquiring an additional 127 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in IDEX in the 4th quarter worth approximately $4,854,000. Institutional investors own 97.96% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on IEX shares. DA Davidson set a $180.00 target price on shares of IDEX and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Robert W. Baird set a $215.00 target price on shares of IDEX in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of IDEX from $238.00 to $204.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Oppenheimer cut their target price on shares of IDEX from $224.00 to $212.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Mizuho set a $185.00 target price on shares of IDEX in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, IDEX currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $201.71.

IDEX Price Performance

IDEX stock traded down $0.29 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $158.24. The stock had a trading volume of 639,104 shares, compared to its average volume of 839,740. IDEX Corporation has a one year low of $153.36 and a one year high of $238.22. The company has a current ratio of 3.05, a quick ratio of 2.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 1.04. The firm's 50 day moving average is $177.30 and its 200 day moving average is $182.97.

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

IDEX Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 11th were given a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 11th. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. IDEX's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 45.88%.

Insider Buying and Selling at IDEX

In other news, CFO Akhil Mahendra sold 250 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.89, for a total transaction of $45,222.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 5,035 shares in the company, valued at $910,781.15. This trade represents a 4.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.