Spire Wealth Management Boosts Stake in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Spire Wealth Management grew its stake in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX - Free Report) by 43.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 25,436 shares of the industrial products company's stock after purchasing an additional 7,739 shares during the quarter. Spire Wealth Management's holdings in IDEX were worth $5,266,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in IDEX by 1,196.4% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 135,825 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $29,598,000 after purchasing an additional 125,348 shares in the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc grew its position in shares of IDEX by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 2,190,741 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $475,632,000 after buying an additional 84,502 shares during the period. Lincoln National Corp grew its position in shares of IDEX by 7.1% in the 3rd quarter. Lincoln National Corp now owns 1,564 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $325,000 after buying an additional 104 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG grew its position in shares of IDEX by 13.3% in the 3rd quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 244,610 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $50,884,000 after buying an additional 28,661 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James & Associates grew its position in shares of IDEX by 11.2% in the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 76,465 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $16,601,000 after buying an additional 7,684 shares during the period. 97.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on IEX shares. Stifel Nicolaus raised shares of IDEX from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and upped their target price for the stock from $215.00 to $265.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of IDEX from $260.00 to $256.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of IDEX from $245.00 to $252.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. StockNews.com cut shares of IDEX from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on shares of IDEX from $254.00 to $277.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $250.71.

IDEX Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:IEX traded up $1.73 during trading on Monday, hitting $222.15. The company's stock had a trading volume of 331,383 shares, compared to its average volume of 380,399. The company has a 50-day moving average of $235.22 and a 200-day moving average of $217.49. IDEX Co. has a 12 month low of $183.76 and a 12 month high of $246.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 3.37 and a quick ratio of 2.45. The firm has a market cap of $16.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.76 by $0.12. IDEX had a net margin of 17.89% and a return on equity of 17.60%. The firm had revenue of $801.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $807.52 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.09 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was down 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that IDEX Co. will post 8.33 earnings per share for the current year.

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.