IDEX Corporation (NYSE:IEX) Given Average Rating of "Moderate Buy" by Brokerages

IDEX Corporation (NYSE:IEX - Get Free Report) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the eight research firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and six have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $212.50.

A number of brokerages have commented on IEX. Robert W. Baird set a $215.00 price objective on IDEX in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of IDEX from $192.00 to $208.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of IDEX from $264.00 to $201.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on shares of IDEX from $206.00 to $208.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Mizuho set a $185.00 price objective on IDEX in a research report on Friday, May 16th.

Insider Activity at IDEX

In other IDEX news, CFO Akhil Mahendra sold 250 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.89, for a total value of $45,222.50. Following the completion of the sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On IDEX

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its stake in shares of IDEX by 22.9% in the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 1,592 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $333,000 after buying an additional 297 shares during the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lifted its position in IDEX by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 30,250 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $6,386,000 after acquiring an additional 1,209 shares during the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its position in IDEX by 6.1% during the 4th quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 20,800 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $4,353,000 after acquiring an additional 1,200 shares during the last quarter. Boston Financial Mangement LLC acquired a new position in shares of IDEX during the 4th quarter worth about $226,000. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH lifted its position in shares of IDEX by 133.2% during the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 406,637 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $85,105,000 after purchasing an additional 232,255 shares during the last quarter. 97.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

IDEX Trading Down 1.0%

IDEX stock traded down $1.75 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $173.28. The stock had a trading volume of 2,463,247 shares, compared to its average volume of 594,044. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $178.57 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $192.49. IDEX has a twelve month low of $153.36 and a twelve month high of $238.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 2.79 and a quick ratio of 1.99. The firm has a market cap of $13.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.46, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.06.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The industrial products company reported $1.75 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.64 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $814.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $807.25 million. IDEX had a return on equity of 15.51% and a net margin of 14.60%. IDEX's revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.88 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that IDEX will post 8.26 EPS for the current fiscal 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. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 11th. IDEX's payout ratio is presently 45.01%.

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.