Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Purchases 4,078 Shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its stake in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 2.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 172,101 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,078 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.’s holdings in IDEX were worth $36,019,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of IDEX by 48.3% in the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 20,632 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $4,426,000 after purchasing an additional 6,720 shares in the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. boosted its position in shares of IDEX by 7.1% in the 3rd quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 250,443 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $53,720,000 after purchasing an additional 16,504 shares in the last quarter. Covea Finance boosted its position in shares of IDEX by 70.6% in the 4th quarter. Covea Finance now owns 14,500 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $3,035,000 after purchasing an additional 6,000 shares in the last quarter. B.O.S.S. Retirement Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of IDEX by 17.3% in the 3rd quarter. B.O.S.S. Retirement Advisors LLC now owns 27,805 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $5,964,000 after purchasing an additional 4,096 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its position in shares of IDEX by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,177,645 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $252,603,000 after purchasing an additional 14,360 shares in the last quarter. 97.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on IEX shares. Citigroup dropped their price target on IDEX from $269.00 to $267.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of IDEX from $244.00 to $256.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of IDEX from $245.00 to $241.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of IDEX from $256.00 to $245.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $241.00.

IDEX Price Performance

Shares of IEX opened at $194.90 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $14.76 billion, a PE ratio of 29.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a current ratio of 2.53, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $214.86 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $211.87. IDEX Co. has a 1-year low of $189.51 and a 1-year high of $246.36.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $2.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.03 by $0.01. IDEX had a net margin of 15.45% and a return on equity of 16.08%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that IDEX Co. will post 8.37 EPS for the current year.

About IDEX

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.