IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) Stake Increased by Dimensional Fund Advisors LP

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 6.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 369,268 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 20,785 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP’s holdings in IDEX were worth $80,172,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Impax Asset Management Group plc increased its stake in shares of IDEX by 4.0% in the fourth 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 last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of IDEX by 3.3% in the third 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 last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in IDEX by 6.1% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 785,716 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $163,445,000 after buying an additional 45,120 shares during the last quarter. Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt increased its position in IDEX by 420.8% during the fourth quarter. Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt now owns 781,172 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $169,600,000 after buying an additional 631,172 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in IDEX by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 608,744 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $132,164,000 after buying an additional 15,202 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

IDEX Stock Down 0.2 %

IEX stock opened at $215.15 on Friday. IDEX Co. has a twelve month low of $183.76 and a twelve month high of $246.36. The company has a market cap of $16.29 billion, a PE ratio of 28.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.99. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $230.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $220.17. 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 earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by $0.12. IDEX had a return on equity of 17.60% and a net margin of 17.89%. The business had revenue of $801.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $807.52 million. During the same period last year, the business 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 anticipate that IDEX Co. will post 8.31 earnings per share for the current year.

IDEX Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This is an increase from IDEX’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.64. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.28%. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.32%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

IEX has been the topic of several analyst reports. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of IDEX from $245.00 to $252.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. StockNews.com raised shares of IDEX from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 18th. 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. Stifel Nicolaus raised shares of IDEX from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $215.00 to $265.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on shares of IDEX from $254.00 to $277.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, IDEX currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $250.71.

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.