Franklin Resources Inc. Sells 196,267 Shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Franklin Resources Inc. cut its stake in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 96.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 7,145 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 196,267 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc.’s holdings in IDEX were worth $1,495,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of 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 during the period. Assetmark Inc. increased its stake in shares of IDEX by 129.1% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 417 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $87,000 after purchasing an additional 235 shares during the period. BankPlus Trust Department acquired a new stake in IDEX during the 4th quarter worth approximately $123,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in IDEX by 49.7% in the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 590 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $123,000 after purchasing an additional 196 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in IDEX by 416.0% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 614 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $129,000 after buying an additional 495 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on IEX. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on IDEX from $256.00 to $192.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on shares of IDEX from $256.00 to $245.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. DA Davidson decreased their target price on shares of IDEX from $225.00 to $215.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of IDEX from $264.00 to $201.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $223.14.

IDEX Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:IEX opened at $169.74 on Tuesday. IDEX Co. has a 1 year low of $153.36 and a 1 year high of $238.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 2.53 and a quick ratio of 1.85. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $184.61 and its 200 day simple moving average is $206.10.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $2.04 EPS for the quarter, topping 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, research analysts predict that IDEX Co. will post 8.26 EPS 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.