IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 806,000 shares, an increase of 7.7% from the March 31st total of 748,600 shares. Approximately 1.1% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 387,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.1 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On IDEX

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in IEX. Albert D Mason Inc. boosted its stake in shares of IDEX by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Albert D Mason Inc. now owns 4,509 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,100,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its position in IDEX by 1.3% during the third quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 4,289 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $892,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. DB Fitzpatrick & Co Inc grew its holdings in IDEX by 2.1% in the third quarter. DB Fitzpatrick & Co Inc now owns 2,766 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $575,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Jacobson & Schmitt Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of IDEX by 5.0% in the third quarter. Jacobson & Schmitt Advisors LLC now owns 1,242 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $258,000 after buying an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Czech National Bank boosted its position in shares of IDEX by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 13,306 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $3,247,000 after buying an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. 97.96% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on IEX. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of IDEX from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $215.00 to $265.00 in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of IDEX from $254.00 to $277.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on IDEX from $260.00 to $256.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on IDEX from $245.00 to $252.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $255.00 target price 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, IDEX has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $250.71.

IDEX Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of IEX stock opened at $221.38 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $16.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.13, 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. The business’s 50 day moving average is $236.09 and its two-hundred day moving average is $217.07. IDEX has a twelve month low of $183.76 and a twelve month high of $246.36.

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

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.