Swiss National Bank Raises Holdings in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Swiss National Bank lifted its stake in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 224,600 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 600 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank owned about 0.30% of IDEX worth $48,177,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in IDEX by 7.5% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,964,956 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,943,609,000 after buying an additional 555,250 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in shares of IDEX by 9,424.6% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,032,277 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $211,473,000 after purchasing an additional 1,021,439 shares during the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its holdings in shares of IDEX by 75.6% during the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 519,124 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $104,179,000 after purchasing an additional 223,422 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in IDEX by 20.0% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 470,672 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $94,698,000 after purchasing an additional 78,551 shares during the period. Finally, Ceredex Value Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in IDEX by 4.8% in the third quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 436,550 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $93,640,000 after purchasing an additional 20,175 shares during the last quarter. 97.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

IEX has been the subject of several analyst reports. DA Davidson decreased their price objective on IDEX from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 5th. TD Cowen decreased their price target on IDEX from $240.00 to $230.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Argus lowered shares of IDEX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on shares of IDEX from $245.00 to $241.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of IDEX from $232.00 to $244.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. 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 data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $241.14.

IDEX Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE IEX opened at $223.11 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $16.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 0.96. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $213.84 and its 200-day simple moving average is $207.76. The company has a quick ratio of 2.11, a current ratio of 2.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. IDEX Co. has a 52-week low of $189.51 and a 52-week high of $246.36.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last issued 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. IDEX had a net margin of 15.35% and a return on equity of 15.92%. The firm had revenue of $798.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $793.05 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.12 EPS. IDEX’s quarterly revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that IDEX Co. will post 7.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

IDEX Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Friday, January 17th will be paid a $0.69 dividend. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 17th. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.72%.

IDEX 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.