Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Raises Holdings in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. lifted its position in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 6.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 34,557 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,973 shares during the period. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in IDEX were worth $7,232,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of IEX. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of IDEX by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 30,250 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $6,386,000 after purchasing an additional 1,209 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC raised its holdings in IDEX by 48.3% in the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 20,632 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $4,426,000 after purchasing an additional 6,720 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. lifted its position in shares of IDEX by 129.1% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 417 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $87,000 after buying an additional 235 shares in the last quarter. Covea Finance lifted its holdings in IDEX by 70.6% during the fourth quarter. Covea Finance now owns 14,500 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $3,035,000 after purchasing an additional 6,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC lifted its stake in IDEX by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,177,645 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $252,603,000 after buying an additional 14,360 shares in the last quarter. 97.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

IEX has been the topic of several recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of IDEX from $256.00 to $245.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on IDEX from $269.00 to $267.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of IDEX from $244.00 to $256.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, DA Davidson dropped their price objective on IDEX from $225.00 to $215.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, IDEX has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $241.71.

IDEX Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE:IEX opened at $182.02 on Monday. IDEX Co. has a fifty-two week low of $177.71 and a fifty-two week high of $245.70. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $200.23 and its 200 day moving average price is $209.94. The stock has a market cap of $13.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a quick ratio of 1.85, a current ratio of 2.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $2.04 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.03 by $0.01. IDEX had a return on equity of 16.08% and a net margin of 15.45%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that IDEX Co. will post 8.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.