IDEX Corporation $IEX Shares Sold by Brown Advisory Inc.

Brown Advisory Inc. trimmed its holdings in IDEX Corporation (NYSE:IEX) by 12.1% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 208,105 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 28,592 shares during the quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. owned about 0.28% of IDEX worth $36,537,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in IEX. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in IDEX in the second quarter valued at $156,009,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of IDEX by 19.7% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,050,601 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $914,007,000 after purchasing an additional 831,005 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC boosted its position in shares of IDEX by 1,232.4% in the 1st quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 487,274 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $88,182,000 after purchasing an additional 450,704 shares during the period. Flossbach Von Storch SE grew its stake in IDEX by 132.8% during the 2nd quarter. Flossbach Von Storch SE now owns 640,792 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $112,504,000 after buying an additional 365,525 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi increased its position in IDEX by 23.4% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 1,249,546 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $220,849,000 after buying an additional 236,650 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

IEX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of IDEX from $204.00 to $191.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 20th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of IDEX from $200.00 to $195.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Oppenheimer set a $210.00 target price on shares of IDEX in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of IDEX in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of IDEX in a research note on Wednesday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $198.86.

IDEX Trading Down 0.9%

Shares of IDEX stock opened at $177.34 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $13.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.01. IDEX Corporation has a 52-week low of $153.36 and a 52-week high of $231.76. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $168.08 and its 200-day simple moving average is $170.83. The company has a quick ratio of 2.06, a current ratio of 2.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47.

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

IDEX Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 30th. Investors of record on Friday, January 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 16th. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.94%.

IDEX announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 18th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the industrial products company to purchase up to 8.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

About IDEX

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.