Simmons Bank Has $754,000 Position in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Simmons Bank lessened its holdings in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 10.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 3,472 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 425 shares during the quarter. Simmons Bank’s holdings in IDEX were worth $754,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Planned Solutions Inc. acquired a new position in IDEX during the fourth quarter worth $33,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in IDEX in the 4th quarter valued at $52,000. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA acquired a new stake in shares of IDEX in the 4th quarter valued at $54,000. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC raised its position in shares of IDEX by 30.9% during the third quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 339 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $71,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. increased its position in IDEX by 25.6% in the fourth quarter. Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 388 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $84,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares during the period. 97.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on IEX shares. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of IDEX from $254.00 to $277.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $255.00 price objective on shares of IDEX in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on IDEX from $260.00 to $256.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. StockNews.com lowered IDEX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, Oppenheimer increased 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. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $250.71.

IDEX Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of IEX traded up $0.72 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $222.47. 164,938 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 378,545. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 3.37 and a quick ratio of 2.45. IDEX Co. has a 52 week low of $183.76 and a 52 week high of $246.36. The company has a market cap of $16.84 billion, a PE ratio of 29.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $234.66 and a 200 day simple moving average of $217.88.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by $0.12. IDEX had a net margin of 17.89% and a return on equity of 17.60%. The business had revenue of $801.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $807.52 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.09 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that IDEX Co. will post 8.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

IDEX Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 31st. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a dividend of $0.69 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This is a boost from IDEX’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.64. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.24%. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio is 33.68%.

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.