Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. Increases Stock Position in IDEX Corporation $IEX

Key Points

• Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. increased its stake in IDEX Corporation by 7.1%, owning 310,743 shares valued at approximately $54.56 million following a purchase of 20,481 additional shares.
• IDEX Corporation's board authorized a $1 billion stock buyback plan, indicating potential confidence in the company's stock valuation.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.71 per share, with a yield of 1.8%, to be paid on October 24th to shareholders on record by October 10th.

Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. raised its position in shares of IDEX Corporation (NYSE:IEX - Free Report) by 7.1% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 310,743 shares of the industrial products company's stock after buying an additional 20,481 shares during the period. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. owned about 0.41% of IDEX worth $54,557,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in IEX. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. boosted its position in IDEX by 257.5% during the 2nd quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. now owns 143 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 103 shares during the period. American National Bank & Trust purchased a new stake in IDEX during the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its position in IDEX by 63.5% during the 1st quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 224 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 87 shares during the period. Steph & Co. purchased a new stake in IDEX during the 2nd quarter valued at $42,000. Finally, SVB Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in IDEX during the 1st quarter valued at $56,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.96% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on shares of IDEX from $207.00 to $200.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of IDEX from $208.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, July 14th. DA Davidson set a $180.00 price objective on shares of IDEX and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Weiss Ratings restated a "hold (c-)" rating on shares of IDEX in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of IDEX from $238.00 to $204.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $201.43.

IDEX Stock Down 2.9%

Shares of IDEX stock opened at $161.12 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 3.05 and a quick ratio of 2.13. The company has a 50-day moving average of $163.12 and a 200 day moving average of $172.70. The firm has a market cap of $12.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.03, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.04. IDEX Corporation has a 1 year low of $153.36 and a 1 year high of $238.22.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, December 16th. The industrial products company reported $1.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The company had revenue of $712.00 million during the quarter. IDEX had a net margin of 14.05% and a return on equity of 15.16%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that IDEX Corporation will post 8.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

IDEX Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 10th. IDEX's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 45.88%.

IDEX announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, September 18th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the industrial products company to purchase up to 8.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.

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