Van ECK Associates Corp Purchases 627 Shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 6.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 10,457 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 627 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in IDEX were worth $2,270,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Planned Solutions Inc. bought a new stake in shares of IDEX in the fourth quarter worth $33,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of IDEX in the fourth quarter worth $52,000. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA bought a new stake in shares of IDEX in the fourth quarter worth $54,000. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC grew its holdings in IDEX by 30.9% during the third quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 339 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $71,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the period. Finally, Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in IDEX by 25.6% during the fourth quarter. Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 388 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $84,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

IDEX Stock Performance

NYSE IEX opened at $221.72 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $16.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a quick ratio of 2.45, a current ratio of 3.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $234.94 and a 200-day moving average price of $217.68. IDEX Co. has a twelve month low of $183.76 and a twelve month high of $246.36.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $801.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $807.52 million. IDEX had a return on equity of 17.60% and a net margin of 17.89%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.09 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that IDEX Co. will post 8.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

IDEX Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 31st. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a $0.69 dividend. This is an increase from IDEX’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.64. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.24%. IDEX’s payout ratio is currently 33.68%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on IEX shares. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on IDEX from $245.00 to $252.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Stifel Nicolaus raised IDEX from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target 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 report on Thursday, March 21st. Citigroup boosted their price target on IDEX from $254.00 to $277.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered IDEX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $250.71.

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.