IDEX Corporation (NYSE:IEX) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

by · The Markets Daily

Shares of IDEX Corporation (NYSE:IEX – Get Free Report) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the seven analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $196.8571.

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on IEX. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of IDEX in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of IDEX from $204.00 to $191.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their target price on shares of IDEX from $200.00 to $195.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of IDEX from $197.00 to $202.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 8th. Finally, Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of IDEX in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd.

Get Our Latest Analysis on IDEX

IDEX Stock Performance

NYSE:IEX opened at $178.91 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a current ratio of 2.93, a quick ratio of 2.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. IDEX has a 1 year low of $153.36 and a 1 year high of $226.04. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $169.38 and a 200-day moving average of $170.63.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, December 16th. The industrial products company reported $1.79 EPS for the quarter. IDEX had a return on equity of 15.20% and a net margin of 13.97%.The business had revenue of $712.00 million for the quarter. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that IDEX will post 8.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

IDEX announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 18th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the industrial products company to reacquire up to 8.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

IDEX Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 16th. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.6%. IDEX’s payout ratio is presently 44.94%.

Institutional Trading of IDEX

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of IDEX by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 6,477,929 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,054,348,000 after purchasing an additional 211,696 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in IDEX by 1.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,154,742 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $513,466,000 after buying an additional 54,990 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in IDEX by 193.6% in the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,364,312 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $382,049,000 after acquiring an additional 1,559,124 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in IDEX by 1.5% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,000,861 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $349,869,000 after acquiring an additional 29,353 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in IDEX by 8.3% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,913,157 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $311,385,000 after acquiring an additional 146,618 shares during the period. 97.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About IDEX

(Get Free Report)

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.

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