IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) Short Interest Update

IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) saw a significant growth in short interest during the month of August. As of August 15th, there was short interest totalling 898,200 shares, a growth of 13.3% from the July 31st total of 793,000 shares. Currently, 1.2% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 521,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.7 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on IEX. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of IDEX from $265.00 to $236.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. DA Davidson decreased their price target on IDEX from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 5th. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on shares of IDEX from $240.00 to $230.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on shares of IDEX from $256.00 to $241.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of IDEX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 11th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, IDEX currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $233.50.

Institutional Trading of IDEX

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Riverview Trust Co acquired a new position in IDEX during the first quarter worth $35,000. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in IDEX in the 4th quarter valued at about $36,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC acquired a new stake in IDEX in the 2nd quarter valued at about $41,000. Whittier Trust Co. increased its holdings in IDEX by 38.4% during the 2nd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 209 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Finally, VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC acquired a new position in IDEX during the fourth quarter worth about $50,000. 97.96% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

IDEX Price Performance

Shares of NYSE IEX opened at $206.48 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 3.41, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The stock has a market cap of $15.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.95. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $200.19 and a two-hundred day moving average of $216.78. IDEX has a twelve month low of $183.76 and a twelve month high of $246.36.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.04 by $0.02. IDEX had a return on equity of 16.87% and a net margin of 18.19%. The firm had revenue of $807.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $828.15 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.18 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 4.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that IDEX will post 7.88 earnings per share for the current year.

IDEX Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 12th were issued a $0.69 dividend. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 12th. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.32%.

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.