Millennium Management LLC Raises Stock Holdings in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Millennium Management LLC lifted its position in shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX - Free Report) by 179.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 36,570 shares of the industrial products company's stock after purchasing an additional 23,505 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC's holdings in IDEX were worth $7,654,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Bleakley Financial Group LLC boosted its position in IDEX by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 1,214 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $254,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the period. Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC boosted its position in IDEX by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC now owns 2,299 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $481,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the period. Laird Norton Wetherby Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in IDEX by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Laird Norton Wetherby Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,127 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $445,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares during the period. Net Worth Advisory Group boosted its position in IDEX by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Net Worth Advisory Group now owns 2,651 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $555,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares during the period. Finally, New York Life Investment Management LLC boosted its position in IDEX by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC now owns 10,234 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $2,142,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.96% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Mizuho set a $185.00 price objective on shares of IDEX in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of IDEX from $264.00 to $201.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Robert W. Baird set a $215.00 price objective on shares of IDEX in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of IDEX from $206.00 to $208.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of IDEX from $192.00 to $208.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $212.50.

IDEX Price Performance

IDEX stock traded up $1.16 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $181.86. 551,576 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 583,608. IDEX Co. has a one year low of $153.36 and a one year high of $238.22. The stock has a market cap of $13.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.07. 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 fifty day moving average price of $176.73 and a 200-day moving average price of $198.56.

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

IDEX Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Shareholders 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 is an increase from IDEX's previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.56%. IDEX's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 45.01%.

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.