Aviva PLC Purchases 3,484 Shares of IDEX Corporation $IEX

Aviva PLC grew its position in IDEX Corporation (NYSE:IEX) by 6.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 55,726 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 3,484 shares during the period. Aviva PLC owned 0.07% of IDEX worth $9,784,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Assetmark Inc. increased its position in shares of IDEX by 235.5% during the second quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,899 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $333,000 after purchasing an additional 1,333 shares in the last quarter. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd purchased a new position in IDEX during the 1st quarter worth $909,000. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in IDEX during the 2nd quarter valued at about $275,000. Swedbank AB raised its stake in IDEX by 16.2% in the first quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 55,396 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $10,025,000 after buying an additional 7,726 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in IDEX by 15.2% in the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 101,019 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $17,736,000 after acquiring an additional 13,294 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of IDEX in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. DA Davidson set a $180.00 price target on shares of IDEX and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price target on shares of IDEX from $200.00 to $195.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 30th. 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 note on Monday, October 20th. Finally, Oppenheimer set a $210.00 price objective on shares of IDEX in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $198.86.

IDEX Price Performance

Shares of NYSE IEX opened at $169.49 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 2.93 and a quick ratio of 2.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.82, a PEG ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 1.04. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $165.05 and its 200-day simple moving average is $172.33. IDEX Corporation has a 12 month low of $153.36 and a 12 month high of $237.38.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last posted its earnings results on Friday, December 16th. The industrial products company reported $1.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $712.00 million during the quarter. IDEX had a net margin of 13.97% and a return on equity of 15.20%. Analysts expect that IDEX Corporation will post 8.26 EPS for the current year.

IDEX Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th were given a dividend of $0.71 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 10th. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.7%. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.94%.

IDEX declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 18th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the industrial products company to reacquire up to 8.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.