IDEX (NYSE:IEX) Upgraded to Buy by StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of IDEX (NYSE:IEX) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report published on Tuesday morning.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on IEX. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of IDEX from a hold rating to a buy rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $215.00 to $265.00 in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an outperform rating and set a $255.00 price target on shares of IDEX in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on IDEX from $254.00 to $277.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. One research analyst has 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 presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $238.00.

IDEX Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:IEX opened at $229.12 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $17.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.22, a PEG ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a quick ratio of 2.05, a current ratio of 2.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. IDEX has a 12 month low of $183.76 and a 12 month high of $246.36. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $236.34 and its 200 day simple moving average is $215.73.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The industrial products company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $788.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $767.96 million. IDEX had a return on equity of 18.56% and a net margin of 18.21%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.01 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that IDEX will post 8.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On IDEX

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust raised its holdings in IDEX by 120.3% in the 1st quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 141 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares during the period. Planned Solutions Inc. acquired a new position in shares of IDEX in the fourth quarter valued at about $33,000. Clear Street Markets LLC increased its position in IDEX by 94.7% during the first quarter. Clear Street Markets LLC now owns 148 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 72 shares during the period. Riverview Trust Co acquired a new stake in IDEX in the 1st quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, Quarry LP bought a new stake in IDEX in the 4th quarter valued at about $36,000. 97.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

IDEX Company 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.