Royal Bank of Canada Has $27.34 Million Holdings in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Royal Bank of Canada lowered its position in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX - Free Report) by 7.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 130,652 shares of the industrial products company's stock after selling 10,135 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada owned about 0.17% of IDEX worth $27,344,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Bleakley Financial Group LLC increased its position in shares of IDEX by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 1,214 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $254,000 after buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC increased its holdings in IDEX by 2.7% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Laird Norton Wetherby Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in IDEX by 3.2% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Net Worth Advisory Group increased its holdings in IDEX by 2.8% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Finally, New York Life Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in IDEX by 0.7% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.96% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on IEX. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on IDEX from $206.00 to $208.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Mizuho set a $185.00 target price on IDEX in a report on Friday, May 16th. Citigroup decreased 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. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on IDEX from $192.00 to $208.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, DA Davidson decreased their price objective on IDEX from $225.00 to $215.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, IDEX presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $212.50.

IDEX Stock Performance

NYSE:IEX traded up $3.76 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $183.36. The stock had a trading volume of 500,399 shares, compared to its average volume of 583,826. IDEX Co. has a twelve month low of $153.36 and a twelve month high of $238.22. The stock has a market cap of $13.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.57, a PEG ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.07. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $176.77 and its 200 day simple moving average is $198.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 1.85 and a current ratio of 2.53.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX - Get Free Report) last issued 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 the consensus estimate of $807.25 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.88 EPS. IDEX's revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast 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. Investors of record on Monday, May 19th will be paid a $0.71 dividend. This is an increase from IDEX's previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.55%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 19th. 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.