Korea Investment CORP Sells 15,917 Shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Korea Investment CORP lowered its stake in shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 19.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 66,254 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 15,917 shares during the period. Korea Investment CORP’s holdings in IDEX were worth $13,866,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its holdings in IDEX by 35.2% in the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 407 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $85,000 after acquiring an additional 106 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. increased its position in shares of IDEX by 129.1% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 417 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $87,000 after purchasing an additional 235 shares during the period. Fred Alger Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of IDEX in the third quarter valued at $89,000. Millburn Ridgefield Corp lifted its position in IDEX by 475.0% in the third quarter. Millburn Ridgefield Corp now owns 460 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $99,000 after purchasing an additional 380 shares during the period. Finally, BankPlus Trust Department acquired a new stake in IDEX during the fourth quarter worth $123,000. Institutional investors own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

IDEX Stock Down 1.7 %

NYSE IEX opened at $180.80 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $197.16 and its 200 day simple moving average is $209.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 2.53 and a quick ratio of 1.85. IDEX Co. has a one year low of $177.71 and a one year high of $244.11. The firm has a market cap of $13.66 billion, a PE ratio of 27.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.99.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $2.04 earnings per share 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, sell-side analysts forecast that IDEX Co. will post 8.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

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.