California Public Employees Retirement System Sells 30,599 Shares of IDEX Corporation $IEX

California Public Employees Retirement System decreased its holdings in IDEX Corporation (NYSE:IEX) by 14.2% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 184,408 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 30,599 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in IDEX were worth $32,377,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of IEX. Norges Bank acquired a new position in IDEX during the 2nd quarter worth about $156,009,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of IDEX by 19.7% during the first 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 during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of IDEX by 1,232.4% in the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 487,274 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $88,182,000 after acquiring an additional 450,704 shares during the period. Flossbach Von Storch SE boosted its holdings in IDEX by 132.8% in the second quarter. Flossbach Von Storch SE now owns 640,792 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $112,504,000 after acquiring an additional 365,525 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi increased its position in IDEX by 23.4% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 1,249,546 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $220,849,000 after purchasing an additional 236,650 shares during the period. 97.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

IEX has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of IDEX in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their target price on shares of IDEX from $200.00 to $195.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of IDEX from $204.00 to $191.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on IDEX from $197.00 to $202.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of IDEX in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $196.86.

IDEX Price Performance

IEX stock opened at $176.34 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 2.93 and a quick ratio of 2.06. The company’s 50-day moving average is $168.82 and its 200-day moving average is $170.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.20 billion, a PE ratio of 27.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 1.01. IDEX Corporation has a 1 year low of $153.36 and a 1 year high of $230.29.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, December 16th. The industrial products company reported $1.79 earnings per share for the quarter. IDEX had a return on equity of 15.20% and a net margin of 13.97%.The business had revenue of $712.00 million for the quarter. Equities research analysts expect that IDEX Corporation will post 8.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

IDEX declared that its board has authorized a stock 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 reacquire up to 8.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

IDEX Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 30th. Investors of record on Friday, January 16th will be given a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 16th. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.6%. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.94%.

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.