IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) Shares Sold by Simmons Bank

Simmons Bank lowered its holdings in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 10.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,472 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 425 shares during the period. Simmons Bank’s holdings in IDEX were worth $754,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in IDEX by 1,196.4% in 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 acquiring an additional 125,348 shares in the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc raised its holdings 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 valued at $475,632,000 after purchasing an additional 84,502 shares in the last quarter. Lincoln National Corp grew its stake in shares of IDEX by 7.1% during the third quarter. Lincoln National Corp now owns 1,564 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $325,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG increased its holdings in IDEX by 13.3% in the third quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 244,610 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $50,884,000 after buying an additional 28,661 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates raised its stake in IDEX by 11.2% in the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 76,465 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $16,601,000 after buying an additional 7,684 shares in the last quarter. 97.96% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

IEX has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup increased their price objective on IDEX from $254.00 to $277.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of IDEX from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $215.00 to $265.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of IDEX from $260.00 to $256.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. StockNews.com cut shares of IDEX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price objective on IDEX from $245.00 to $252.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $250.71.

IDEX Stock Performance

NYSE IEX traded up $0.72 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $222.47. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 164,938 shares, compared to its average volume of 378,545. IDEX Co. has a twelve month low of $183.76 and a twelve month high of $246.36. The firm has a market cap of $16.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $234.66 and its 200-day moving average price is $217.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 2.45 and a current ratio of 3.37.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $801.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $807.52 million. IDEX had a return on equity of 17.60% and a net margin of 17.89%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.09 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that IDEX Co. will post 8.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

IDEX Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a $0.69 dividend. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This is a boost from IDEX’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.64. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 33.68%.

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.