Park Avenue Securities LLC Increases Stock Position in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its holdings in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 27.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,330 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 495 shares during the quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC’s holdings in IDEX were worth $488,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in IDEX by 108.4% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,830,929 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $607,234,000 after acquiring an additional 1,472,456 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in shares of IDEX by 9,424.6% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of IDEX by 28.8% in the 3rd quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 1,223,676 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $262,479,000 after buying an additional 273,460 shares during the last quarter. DF Dent & Co. Inc. bought a new position in IDEX during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $31,747,000. Finally, D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. raised its stake in IDEX by 247.0% during the second quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 198,170 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $39,872,000 after buying an additional 141,064 shares during the last quarter. 97.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

IDEX Stock Performance

Shares of IEX stock opened at $222.13 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.11, a current ratio of 2.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $219.51 and a 200-day moving average price of $211.01. IDEX Co. has a 52 week low of $189.51 and a 52 week high of $246.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.82 billion, a PE ratio of 34.39, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.97.

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

IDEX Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on IEX shares. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on IDEX from $244.00 to $256.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of IDEX from $248.00 to $258.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of IDEX from $269.00 to $267.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut 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. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, IDEX has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $242.86.

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.