IDEX Corporation (NYSE:IEX) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

IDEX Corporation (NYSE:IEX) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the seven analysts that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $199.5714.

Several research firms have recently issued reports on IEX. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of IDEX from $208.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 14th. Oppenheimer set a $210.00 target price on shares of IDEX in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their target price on shares of IDEX from $207.00 to $200.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of IDEX in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of IDEX from $204.00 to $191.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On IDEX

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of IEX. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. increased its stake in IDEX by 257.5% in the second quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. now owns 143 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. American National Bank & Trust bought a new stake in IDEX in the second quarter valued at $25,000. Capital A Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in IDEX in the second quarter valued at $28,000. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P bought a new stake in IDEX in the second quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, CYBER HORNET ETFs LLC bought a new stake in IDEX in the second quarter valued at $35,000. 97.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

IDEX Price Performance

IEX stock opened at $166.83 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $163.76 and a 200-day moving average price of $172.12. The company has a market capitalization of $12.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.95, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.04. IDEX has a 52-week low of $153.36 and a 52-week high of $238.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 2.13 and a current ratio of 3.05.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, December 16th. The industrial products company reported $1.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $712.00 million during the quarter. IDEX had a net margin of 14.05% and a return on equity of 15.16%. As a group, equities analysts expect that IDEX will post 8.26 EPS for the current year.

IDEX Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 24th. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 10th. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 45.88%.

IDEX declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 18th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the industrial products company to buy up to 8.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

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.