Everence Capital Management Inc. Invests $341,000 in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Everence Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 1,630 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $341,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in IEX. Studio Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in IDEX by 4.9% during the third quarter. Studio Investment Management LLC now owns 955 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $205,000 after buying an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in IDEX by 19.9% in the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 344 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $72,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of IDEX by 73.8% during the third quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC now owns 139 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund raised its position in shares of IDEX by 1.0% in the second quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 6,476 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,303,000 after buying an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Finance LLC lifted its stake in shares of IDEX by 2.5% in the third quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 2,486 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $533,000 after buying an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. 97.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on IEX shares. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on shares of IDEX from $245.00 to $241.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Citigroup lifted their price objective on IDEX from $251.00 to $269.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on IDEX from $248.00 to $258.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on IDEX from $244.00 to $256.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, IDEX currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $243.14.

IDEX Stock Up 1.1 %

IDEX stock opened at $209.21 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.97, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.39, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.97. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $222.01 and a two-hundred day moving average of $209.77. IDEX Co. has a twelve month low of $189.51 and a twelve month high of $246.36.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The industrial products company reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.89 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $798.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $793.05 million. IDEX had a return on equity of 15.92% and a net margin of 15.35%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.12 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that IDEX Co. will post 7.89 earnings per share for the current year.

IDEX Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 17th will be given a dividend of $0.69 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 17th. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.32%. IDEX’s payout ratio is currently 42.72%.

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.