IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) Short Interest Update

IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) was the target of a large decline in short interest during the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 1,420,000 shares, a decline of 9.0% from the November 15th total of 1,560,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 581,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.4 days. Currently, 1.9% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

IEX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup increased their target price on IDEX from $251.00 to $269.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of IDEX from $245.00 to $241.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of IDEX from $248.00 to $258.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of IDEX from $244.00 to $256.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, IDEX currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $243.14.

IDEX Price Performance

IDEX stock traded down $1.82 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $222.26. The stock had a trading volume of 898,664 shares, compared to its average volume of 486,250. The company has a current ratio of 2.97, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $221.47 and its 200 day moving average is $209.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 0.96. IDEX has a one year low of $189.51 and a one year high of $246.36.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The industrial products company reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.89 by $0.01. IDEX had a return on equity of 15.92% and a net margin of 15.35%. The company had revenue of $798.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $793.05 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.12 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that IDEX will post 7.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

IDEX Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Friday, January 17th will be given a $0.69 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 17th. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.24%. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.72%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On IDEX

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in IDEX by 73.8% during the third quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC now owns 139 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. purchased a new stake in IDEX during the 3rd quarter valued at $39,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC bought a new stake in IDEX in the second quarter worth $41,000. Whittier Trust Co. boosted its stake in IDEX by 38.4% during the second quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 209 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. Finally, Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt raised its stake in shares of IDEX by 100.0% in the third quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 200 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

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.