Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Has $6.39 Million Stock Holdings in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. trimmed its stake in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 23.1% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 31,751 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 9,561 shares during the period. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in IDEX were worth $6,388,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of IEX. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of IDEX during the fourth quarter valued at about $518,000. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of IDEX by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 2,418 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $525,000 after buying an additional 146 shares during the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. acquired a new position in shares of IDEX during the fourth quarter valued at about $61,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of IDEX by 6.0% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 369,268 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $80,172,000 after buying an additional 20,785 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of IDEX by 22.9% during the fourth quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 1,426 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $310,000 after buying an additional 266 shares during the last quarter. 97.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

IDEX Stock Performance

Shares of IEX stock opened at $199.78 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $15.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.29, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a current ratio of 3.41. IDEX Co. has a 52 week low of $183.76 and a 52 week high of $246.36. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $200.32 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $214.86.

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

IDEX Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 12th were given a $0.69 dividend. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.38%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 12th. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.32%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on IEX shares. StockNews.com cut shares of IDEX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 11th. Argus lowered shares of IDEX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on shares of IDEX from $250.00 to $236.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus dropped 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. Finally, Oppenheimer dropped their price target on shares of IDEX from $245.00 to $238.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $233.50.

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.