GAMMA Investing LLC Increases Stock Holdings in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 26,868.7% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 165,588 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 164,974 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC’s holdings in IDEX were worth $299,660,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Banque de Luxembourg S.A. purchased a new stake in shares of IDEX in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB grew its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 64 shares during the period. Quarry LP purchased a new stake in shares of IDEX in the fourth quarter valued at about $49,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its stake in IDEX by 35.2% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 407 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $85,000 after buying an additional 106 shares during the period. Finally, Orion Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in IDEX during the fourth quarter worth about $86,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Robert W. Baird set a $215.00 target price on shares of IDEX in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of IDEX from $192.00 to $208.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of IDEX from $206.00 to $208.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. DA Davidson lowered their target price 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. Finally, Mizuho set a $185.00 target price on shares of IDEX in a research note on Friday, May 16th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, IDEX has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $212.50.

IDEX Stock Down 0.7%

Shares of IEX opened at $180.79 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.66 billion, a PE ratio of 27.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.07. IDEX Co. has a 1 year low of $153.36 and a 1 year high of $238.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 1.85 and a current ratio of 2.53. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $176.59 and its 200-day simple moving average is $197.91.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The industrial products company reported $1.75 earnings per share (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 analysts’ expectations of $807.25 million. IDEX had a net margin of 15.45% and a return on equity of 16.08%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.88 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that IDEX Co. will post 8.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

IDEX Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 30th. Investors 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.57%. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.