Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Takes Position in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 4,600 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $999,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Impax Asset Management Group plc increased its stake in shares of IDEX by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 2,190,741 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $475,632,000 after buying an additional 84,502 shares during the period. Barclays PLC increased its position in IDEX by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,143,583 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $237,890,000 after purchasing an additional 36,928 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in IDEX by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 785,716 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $163,445,000 after purchasing an additional 45,120 shares during the period. Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt increased its position in IDEX by 420.8% during the 4th quarter. Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt now owns 781,172 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $169,600,000 after purchasing an additional 631,172 shares during the period. Finally, Fenimore Asset Management Inc. increased its position in IDEX by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. Fenimore Asset Management Inc. now owns 773,412 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $160,885,000 after purchasing an additional 29,258 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

IDEX Price Performance

Shares of IEX opened at $224.64 on Thursday. IDEX Co. has a 12-month low of $183.76 and a 12-month high of $246.36. The business’s fifty day moving average is $236.58 and its 200 day moving average is $216.55. The company has a quick ratio of 2.05, a current ratio of 2.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The stock has a market cap of $17.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.97.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by $0.12. IDEX had a return on equity of 18.56% and a net margin of 18.21%. The company had revenue of $801.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $807.52 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.09 EPS. IDEX’s quarterly revenue was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that IDEX Co. will post 8.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have weighed in on the stock. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of IDEX from $245.00 to $252.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $255.00 target price on shares of IDEX in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Stifel Nicolaus raised shares of IDEX from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $215.00 to $265.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of IDEX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on IDEX from $254.00 to $277.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, IDEX currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $238.78.

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.