IDEX (NYSE:IEX) Downgraded by StockNews.com to “Hold”

StockNews.com downgraded shares of IDEX (NYSE:IEX) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Thursday morning.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the company. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on IDEX from $260.00 to $256.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an outperform rating and set a $255.00 price objective on shares of IDEX in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on IDEX from $245.00 to $252.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on IDEX from $254.00 to $277.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $250.71.

IDEX Stock Up 2.5 %

Shares of IDEX stock opened at $203.34 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $208.23 and a 200-day simple moving average of $220.16. IDEX has a 52-week low of $183.76 and a 52-week high of $246.36. The firm has a market cap of $15.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 3.37 and a quick ratio of 2.45.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $807.52 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.09 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that IDEX will post 8.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

IDEX Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 26th. Investors of record on Friday, July 12th will be given a dividend of $0.69 per share. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 12th. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.32%.

Institutional Trading of IDEX

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in shares of IDEX by 1,196.4% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 135,825 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $29,598,000 after buying an additional 125,348 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG raised its holdings in IDEX by 177.3% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 57,255 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $12,431,000 after acquiring an additional 36,606 shares in the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc lifted 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 acquiring an additional 84,502 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG lifted 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 acquiring an additional 28,661 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James & Associates increased its position in shares of IDEX by 11.2% during the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 76,465 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $16,601,000 after purchasing an additional 7,684 shares during the period. 97.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.