Principal Financial Group Inc. Increases Stock Position in IDEX Corporation $IEX

Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in IDEX Corporation (NYSE:IEX) by 4.8% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 88,315 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,060 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in IDEX were worth $16,740,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in IEX. Primecap Management Co. CA lifted its position in IDEX by 86.5% during the fourth quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 3,226,787 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $574,174,000 after purchasing an additional 1,496,207 shares during the period. Dodge & Cox grew its position in IDEX by 266.7% in the 4th quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 1,262,550 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $224,658,000 after purchasing an additional 918,208 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in IDEX during the 4th quarter valued at $162,788,000. Millennium Management LLC raised its stake in IDEX by 293.6% during the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,063,763 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $189,286,000 after buying an additional 793,530 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of IDEX by 35,817.3% during the 4th quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 720,142 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $128,142,000 after buying an additional 718,137 shares during the period. 97.96% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

IEX has been the topic of a number of research reports. Oppenheimer raised their price target on IDEX from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Robert W. Baird set a $257.00 price objective on IDEX in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on IDEX from $250.00 to $257.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Citigroup raised their target price on IDEX from $243.00 to $252.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded IDEX from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $244.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other IDEX news, CEO Eric D. Ashleman sold 15,385 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $215.22, for a total value of $3,311,159.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 66,658 shares in the company, valued at $14,346,134.76. This represents a 18.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

IDEX Trading Up 0.8%

Shares of IDEX stock opened at $222.96 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $218.62 and its 200-day simple moving average is $206.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.50 billion, a PE ratio of 32.98, a P/E/G ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.98. IDEX Corporation has a 1-year low of $157.25 and a 1-year high of $231.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 3.39 and a quick ratio of 2.40.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The industrial products company reported $2.00 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.22. IDEX had a return on equity of 15.29% and a net margin of 14.38%.The firm had revenue of $886.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $845.58 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.75 EPS. IDEX’s revenue was up 8.9% on a year-over-year basis. IDEX has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 2.070-2.120 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 8.350-8.550 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that IDEX Corporation will post 8.48 earnings per share for the current year.

IDEX Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.73 per share. This represents a $2.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 6th. IDEX’s payout ratio is currently 43.20%.

IDEX Company Profile

IDEX Corporation is a diversified industrial manufacturer specializing in the design, production and distribution of highly engineered fluidics systems, measurement technologies and safety solutions. The company’s core offerings include positive-displacement pumps, flow meters, valves, sampling systems and analytical instruments that serve a wide range of end markets such as water treatment, chemical processing, energy, food and beverage, and life sciences. Through its focus on precision engineering and proprietary material science, IDEX delivers products designed for reliability in demanding applications.

Operations at IDEX are organized into three principal segments.