Equitable Trust Co. Takes Position in IDEX Corporation $IEX

Equitable Trust Co. purchased a new position in shares of IDEX Corporation (NYSE:IEX) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 1,267 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $222,000.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Horizon Investments LLC lifted its position in IDEX by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. Horizon Investments LLC now owns 1,087 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $197,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its position in IDEX by 3.4% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 1,646 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $298,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. lifted its position in IDEX by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 5,990 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,084,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in IDEX by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 8,332 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,508,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in IDEX by 21.5% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 446 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $78,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on IEX shares. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of IDEX from $208.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of IDEX from $238.00 to $204.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. DA Davidson set a $180.00 price target on shares of IDEX and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of IDEX in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Oppenheimer set a $210.00 target price on shares of IDEX in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Five 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, IDEX has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $201.43.

IDEX Stock Performance

IDEX stock opened at $163.34 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $163.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is $172.36. The company has a market cap of $12.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 3.05 and a quick ratio of 2.13. IDEX Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $153.36 and a fifty-two week high of $238.22.

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 14.05% and a return on equity of 15.16%. The firm had revenue of $712.00 million for the quarter. As a group, equities research analysts predict that IDEX Corporation will post 8.26 EPS for the current year.

IDEX Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be paid a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 10th. IDEX’s payout ratio is presently 45.88%.

IDEX announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, September 18th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the industrial products company to repurchase up to 8.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s management 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.