IDEX Corporation (NYSE:IEX) Shares Sold by Vontobel Holding Ltd.

Vontobel Holding Ltd. lowered its holdings in shares of IDEX Corporation (NYSE:IEX - Free Report) by 10.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 26,042 shares of the industrial products company's stock after selling 2,933 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd.'s holdings in IDEX were worth $4,713,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in IDEX by 13.0% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 640,717 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $134,096,000 after purchasing an additional 73,540 shares during the period. Snyder Capital Management L P raised its position in IDEX by 12.2% during the 4th quarter. Snyder Capital Management L P now owns 480,193 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $100,500,000 after buying an additional 52,259 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in IDEX by 49.0% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 915 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $166,000 after buying an additional 301 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. raised its position in IDEX by 129.1% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 417 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $87,000 after buying an additional 235 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. raised its position in IDEX by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 8,332 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $1,508,000 after buying an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.96% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on IEX. 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. Stifel Nicolaus upped 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. 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 upped 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. Finally, Mizuho set a $185.00 price objective on shares of IDEX in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $212.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Akhil Mahendra sold 250 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $180.89, for a total value of $45,222.50. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 5,035 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $910,781.15. This represents a 4.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.50% of the company's stock.

IDEX Price Performance

Shares of IEX traded down $0.91 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $181.25. The company had a trading volume of 224,051 shares, compared to its average volume of 596,420. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $180.68 and a 200-day simple moving average of $189.20. The company has a current ratio of 2.79, a quick ratio of 1.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The company has a market capitalization of $13.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.72, a PEG ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 1.04. IDEX Corporation has a 12-month low of $153.36 and a 12-month high of $238.22.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The industrial products company reported $1.75 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.64 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $814.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $807.25 million. IDEX had a net margin of 14.60% and a return on equity of 15.51%. The firm's revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.88 EPS. Research analysts expect that IDEX Corporation will post 8.26 earnings per share for the current year.

IDEX Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 25th. Investors of record on Friday, July 11th will be paid a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 11th. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.57%. IDEX's payout ratio is 45.01%.

IDEX 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.