IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) Shares Acquired by Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC

Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC boosted its position in shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 32.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,239 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 553 shares during the quarter. Blackston Financial Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in IDEX were worth $480,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of IEX. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of IDEX by 7.5% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,964,956 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,943,609,000 after acquiring an additional 555,250 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its stake in IDEX by 75.6% during the 2nd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 519,124 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $104,179,000 after purchasing an additional 223,422 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in IDEX by 20.0% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 470,672 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $94,698,000 after purchasing an additional 78,551 shares during the period. CCLA Investment Management raised its position in IDEX by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 433,403 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $86,697,000 after purchasing an additional 7,615 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ceredex Value Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of IDEX by 25.8% in the 2nd quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 416,375 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $83,775,000 after buying an additional 85,434 shares during the period. 97.96% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

IDEX Price Performance

IEX stock opened at $203.48 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $205.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $208.72. The company has a market capitalization of $15.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.77, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.95. IDEX Co. has a twelve month low of $183.76 and a twelve month high of $246.36. The company has a current ratio of 3.41, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.06 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.04 by $0.02. IDEX had a net margin of 18.19% and a return on equity of 16.87%. The company had revenue of $807.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $828.15 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.18 earnings per share. IDEX’s quarterly revenue was down 4.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that IDEX Co. will post 7.88 EPS for the current year.

IDEX Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 11th will be issued a $0.69 dividend. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.36%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 11th. IDEX’s payout ratio is currently 36.32%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently weighed in on IEX shares. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on shares of IDEX from $250.00 to $236.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 2nd. StockNews.com cut shares of IDEX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 11th. TD Cowen dropped their target price on IDEX from $240.00 to $230.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Oppenheimer cut their price target on IDEX from $245.00 to $238.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on IDEX from $232.00 to $244.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, IDEX has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $239.43.

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.