Comparing THK (OTCMKTS:THKLY) and IDEX (NYSE:IEX)

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) and THK (OTCMKTS:THKLY) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, dividends, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for IDEX and THK, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
IDEX	0	2	9	0	2.82
THK	0	1	0	0	2.00

IDEX currently has a consensus price target of $260.27, indicating a potential upside of 11.54%. Given IDEX’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe IDEX is more favorable than THK.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares IDEX and THK”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
IDEX	$3.46 billion	4.98	$483.20 million	$6.95	33.57
THK	$1.61 billion	3.11	-$468.27 million	$0.30	69.93

IDEX has higher revenue and earnings than THK. IDEX is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than THK, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

IDEX pays an annual dividend of $2.92 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.3%. THK pays an annual dividend of $0.37 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. IDEX pays out 42.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. THK pays out 123.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. IDEX has increased its dividend for 16 consecutive years.

Volatility & Risk

IDEX has a beta of 0.97, suggesting that its stock price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, THK has a beta of 1.21, suggesting that its stock price is 21% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

98.0% of IDEX shares are held by institutional investors. 0.5% of IDEX shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares IDEX and THK’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
IDEX	14.49%	15.69%	9.10%
THK	N/A	N/A	N/A

Summary

IDEX beats THK on 14 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

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. The HST segment designs, produces, and distributes precision fluidics positive displacement pumps, powder and liquid processing technologies, drying systems, micro-precision components, pneumatic components and sealing solutions, high performance molded and extruded sealing components, custom mechanical and shaft seals, engineered hygienic mixers and valves, biocompatible medical devices and implantables, air compressors and blowers, optical components and coatings, laboratory and commercial equipment, and precision photonic solutions. This segment serves food and beverage, life sciences, analytical instruments, pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical, industrial, semiconductor, automotive/transportation, medical/dental, energy, cosmetics, marine, chemical, wastewater and water treatment, research and aerospace/defense markets. The FSDP segment designs, produces, and distributes firefighting pumps, valves and controls, rescue tools, lifting bags, and other components and systems for the fire and rescue industry; engineered stainless steel banding and clamping devices for various industrial and commercial applications; and precision equipment for dispensing, metering, and mixing colorants and paints used in retail and commercial businesses. IDEX Corporation was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois.

About THK

THK Co., Ltd. engages in the manufacture and sale of mechanical components worldwide. The company provides linear motion (LM) guides, ball screws, ball splines, LM guide actuators, cross roller rings/ double row angular contact ring, electric actuators, linear motor actuators, cam followers, roller followers, linear bushes, LM strokes, slide packs, slide rails, cross roller guides and tables, linear ball slides, LM and flat rollers, spline nuts, screw nuts, change nuts, precision linear packs, link balls, rod ends, spherical plain bearings, lubrication accessories, and seismic isolation products. Its products are used in various applications, including machine tools, general industrial machinery, precision instruments, semiconductor and LCD manufacturing equipment, industrial robots, electronic devices, and transport systems, as well as in construction, aerospace, medical and assistive, and other manufacturing industries. The company was incorporated in 1946 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.