StockNews.com Downgrades IDEX (NYSE:IEX) to Hold

StockNews.com lowered shares of IDEX (NYSE:IEX) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of IDEX from $254.00 to $277.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on shares of IDEX from $260.00 to $256.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded IDEX from a hold rating to a buy rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $215.00 to $265.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on IDEX from $245.00 to $252.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an outperform rating and set a $255.00 price target on shares of IDEX in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $250.71.

IDEX Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:IEX traded up $1.91 on Thursday, hitting $222.33. 210,484 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 378,721. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a current ratio of 3.37, a quick ratio of 2.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. IDEX has a 1-year low of $183.76 and a 1-year high of $246.36. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $235.22 and its 200 day moving average price is $217.49.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $1.88 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $801.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $807.52 million. IDEX had a return on equity of 17.60% and a net margin of 17.89%. The firm’s revenue was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.09 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that IDEX will post 8.33 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On IDEX

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Impax Asset Management Group plc grew its position in shares of IDEX by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 2,190,741 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $475,632,000 after purchasing an additional 84,502 shares during the period. Barclays PLC increased its stake in IDEX by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,143,583 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $237,890,000 after buying an additional 36,928 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of IDEX during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $237,425,000. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of IDEX by 6.1% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 785,716 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $163,445,000 after acquiring an additional 45,120 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt boosted its stake in shares of IDEX by 420.8% in the fourth quarter. Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt now owns 781,172 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $169,600,000 after acquiring an additional 631,172 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

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.