SG Americas Securities LLC Grows Stake in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

SG Americas Securities LLC grew its holdings in shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 329.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,193 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,050 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC’s holdings in IDEX were worth $1,664,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in IEX. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB raised its stake in IDEX by 81.0% in the first quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 143 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. Banque de Luxembourg S.A. purchased a new position in shares of IDEX in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in IDEX by 63.5% in the 1st quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 224 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 87 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in IDEX during the 4th quarter worth approximately $49,000. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc increased its stake in IDEX by 970.7% during the 1st quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 439 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $79,000 after purchasing an additional 398 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other IDEX news, CFO Akhil Mahendra sold 250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $180.89, for a total value of $45,222.50. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 5,035 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $910,781.15. This trade represents a 4.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. DA Davidson lowered their price objective on shares of IDEX from $225.00 to $215.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on IDEX from $192.00 to $208.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Robert W. Baird set a $215.00 price target on IDEX in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Citigroup reduced their price objective on IDEX from $264.00 to $201.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Mizuho set a $185.00 target price on IDEX in a research report on Friday, May 16th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, IDEX has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $212.50.

IDEX Stock Down 2.6%

Shares of IEX opened at $177.69 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $13.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.72, a PEG ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.06. IDEX Co. has a 52 week low of $153.36 and a 52 week high of $238.22. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $177.89 and its 200-day moving average price is $194.13. The company has a quick ratio of 1.85, a current ratio of 2.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The industrial products company reported $1.75 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.64 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $814.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $807.25 million. IDEX had a return on equity of 16.08% and a net margin of 15.45%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.88 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that IDEX Co. will post 8.26 EPS for the current year.

IDEX Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 19th were issued a $0.71 dividend. This is a boost from IDEX’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 19th. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.60%. IDEX’s payout ratio is presently 45.01%.

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.