California State Teachers Retirement System Increases Position in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its holdings in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 6.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 131,637 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 7,793 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System owned approximately 0.17% of IDEX worth $27,550,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of IEX. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of IDEX by 49.1% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,219,596 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $883,119,000 after buying an additional 1,388,667 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of IDEX in the 4th quarter worth approximately $217,658,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of IDEX by 8.2% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,666,777 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $767,421,000 after buying an additional 277,964 shares during the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH raised its holdings in shares of IDEX by 133.2% in the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 406,637 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $85,105,000 after purchasing an additional 232,255 shares during the period. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of IDEX by 237.1% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 256,769 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $53,740,000 after purchasing an additional 180,601 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

IDEX Trading Down 1.6%

Shares of IEX stock opened at $180.55 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $176.73 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $198.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 2.53 and a quick ratio of 1.85. IDEX Co. has a 1 year low of $153.36 and a 1 year high of $238.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.15, a PEG ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.07.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The industrial products company reported $1.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.64 by $0.11. IDEX had a net margin of 15.45% and a return on equity of 16.08%. The business had revenue of $814.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $807.25 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.88 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that IDEX Co. will post 8.26 earnings per share for the current year.

IDEX Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.71 per share. This is a boost from IDEX’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.69. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 19th. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.57%. IDEX’s payout ratio is presently 45.01%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on IEX. Mizuho set a $185.00 price target on shares of IDEX in a report on Friday, May 16th. DA Davidson lowered their price target on shares of IDEX from $225.00 to $215.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of IDEX from $264.00 to $201.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of IDEX from $206.00 to $208.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of IDEX from $192.00 to $208.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, IDEX has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $212.50.

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.