Magnetar Financial LLC Trims Holdings in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Magnetar Financial LLC trimmed its position in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 78.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,241 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 18,959 shares during the period. Magnetar Financial LLC’s holdings in IDEX were worth $1,097,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in IEX. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in IDEX by 108.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,830,929 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $607,234,000 after purchasing an additional 1,472,456 shares in the last quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC lifted its position in IDEX by 28.8% during the third quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 1,223,676 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $262,479,000 after buying an additional 273,460 shares during the period. Allianz Asset Management GmbH lifted its position in IDEX by 133.2% during the fourth quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 406,637 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $85,105,000 after buying an additional 232,255 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC lifted its position in IDEX by 237.1% during the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 256,769 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $53,740,000 after buying an additional 180,601 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in IDEX during the fourth quarter worth about $35,375,000. 97.96% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on IDEX from $256.00 to $245.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup cut their target price on IDEX from $269.00 to $267.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 13th. DA Davidson cut their target price on IDEX from $225.00 to $215.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of IDEX from $244.00 to $256.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $241.71.

IDEX Stock Performance

IDEX stock opened at $182.02 on Friday. IDEX Co. has a 12-month low of $177.71 and a 12-month high of $246.36. The company has a market capitalization of $13.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 2.53 and a quick ratio of 1.85. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $200.23 and its 200 day moving average price is $209.82.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $2.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.03 by $0.01. IDEX had a net margin of 15.45% and a return on equity of 16.08%. On average, research analysts forecast that IDEX Co. will post 8.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.