Vest Financial LLC Acquires 4,182 Shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Vest Financial LLC raised its position in shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX - Free Report) by 36.3% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 15,712 shares of the industrial products company's stock after purchasing an additional 4,182 shares during the quarter. Vest Financial LLC's holdings in IDEX were worth $2,843,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of IDEX by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 9,306,008 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $1,947,654,000 after buying an additional 63,432 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of IDEX by 49.1% during 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 buying an additional 1,388,667 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of IDEX by 8.2% during 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 buying an additional 277,964 shares during the period. 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 worth $399,350,000 after buying an additional 21,758 shares during the period. 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 worth $391,147,000 after buying an additional 17,087 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.96% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of IDEX from $206.00 to $208.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of IDEX from $192.00 to $208.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Citigroup reduced 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. DA Davidson cut their target price on IDEX from $225.00 to $215.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $215.00 target price on IDEX in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $212.50.

IDEX Stock Performance

IEX traded down $0.14 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $183.17. The stock had a trading volume of 626,567 shares, compared to its average volume of 581,315. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $176.46 and its 200 day simple moving average is $195.55. IDEX Co. has a 1 year low of $153.36 and a 1 year high of $238.22. The stock has a market cap of $13.84 billion, a PE ratio of 27.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a quick ratio of 1.85, a current ratio of 2.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

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

IDEX Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 19th were issued a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 19th. This is a positive change from IDEX's previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. IDEX's payout ratio is presently 45.01%.

Insider Buying and Selling at IDEX

In other IDEX news, CFO Akhil Mahendra sold 250 shares of IDEX 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 now owns 5,035 shares of the company's stock, valued at $910,781.15. The trade was a 4.73% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.50% of the company's stock.

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.