IDEX Corporation (NYSE:IEX) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

IDEX Corporation (NYSE:IEX) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seven ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $196.8571.

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on IDEX from $204.00 to $191.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 20th. Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of IDEX in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Citigroup increased their price target on IDEX from $197.00 to $202.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Oppenheimer set a $210.00 price objective on IDEX in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their target price 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.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. LPL Financial LLC grew its stake in IDEX by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 20,068 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $3,632,000 after acquiring an additional 366 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of IDEX by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 648,477 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $117,355,000 after buying an additional 8,294 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of IDEX in the first quarter worth $118,000. Citigroup Inc. boosted its position in IDEX by 64.4% during the first quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 79,816 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $14,444,000 after purchasing an additional 31,256 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI grew its stake in IDEX by 60.4% in the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 57,561 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $10,417,000 after purchasing an additional 21,686 shares in the last quarter. 97.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

IDEX Price Performance

Shares of IDEX stock opened at $173.40 on Wednesday. IDEX has a 52 week low of $153.36 and a 52 week high of $230.29. The company has a current ratio of 2.93, a quick ratio of 2.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The stock has a market cap of $12.98 billion, a PE ratio of 27.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 1.01. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $168.57 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $170.68.

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

IDEX Dividend Announcement

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

IDEX announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Thursday, September 18th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the industrial products company to buy up to 8.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are 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.