IDEX Corporation (NYSE:IEX) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of IDEX Corporation (NYSE:IEX) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seven ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $199.5714.

A number of research firms have commented on IEX. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of IDEX from $208.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 14th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of IDEX from $204.00 to $191.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Oppenheimer set a $210.00 target price on shares of IDEX in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price target on shares of IDEX from $207.00 to $200.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, DA Davidson set a $180.00 target price on shares of IDEX and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 4th.

IDEX Price Performance

NYSE IEX opened at $166.83 on Tuesday. IDEX has a fifty-two week low of $153.36 and a fifty-two week high of $238.22. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $163.76 and its two-hundred day moving average is $172.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 3.05 and a quick ratio of 2.13. The firm has a market cap of $12.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.04.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, December 16th. The industrial products company reported $1.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. IDEX had a return on equity of 15.16% and a net margin of 14.05%.The company had revenue of $712.00 million for the quarter. On average, analysts anticipate that IDEX will post 8.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

IDEX declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, September 18th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the industrial products company to buy up to 8.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

IDEX Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 10th will be given a dividend of $0.71 per share. 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 dividend payout ratio is presently 45.88%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in IEX. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of IDEX by 19.7% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,050,601 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $914,007,000 after acquiring an additional 831,005 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in IDEX by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,099,752 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $544,223,000 after purchasing an additional 16,913 shares during the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc lifted its stake in IDEX by 11.5% in the 1st quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 2,006,724 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $363,157,000 after purchasing an additional 207,172 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in IDEX by 1.5% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,000,861 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $349,869,000 after purchasing an additional 29,353 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in IDEX by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,559,341 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $273,773,000 after purchasing an additional 13,878 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

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.