Van ECK Associates Corp Purchases 627 Shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 6.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 10,457 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 627 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in IDEX were worth $2,270,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Impax Asset Management Group plc grew its stake in shares of IDEX by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 2,190,741 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $475,632,000 after acquiring an additional 84,502 shares during the period. Barclays PLC grew its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 36,928 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of IDEX by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 785,716 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $163,445,000 after acquiring an additional 45,120 shares during the period. Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt grew its stake in shares of IDEX by 420.8% during the 4th 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 period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of IDEX by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 593,542 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $123,469,000 after acquiring an additional 7,559 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. 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 report on Thursday, April 25th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on IDEX from $245.00 to $252.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $255.00 price objective on shares of IDEX in a report on Thursday, March 21st. Citigroup increased their price objective on IDEX from $254.00 to $277.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, StockNews.com cut IDEX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, IDEX has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $250.71.

IDEX Stock Performance

NYSE:IEX opened at $221.72 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $234.94 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $217.68. IDEX Co. has a twelve month low of $183.76 and a twelve month high of $246.36. The stock has a market cap of $16.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.17, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a quick ratio of 2.45, a current ratio of 3.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37.

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

IDEX Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 31st. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.69 per share. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.24%. This is a boost from IDEX’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.64. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 33.68%.

IDEX 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.