Quantbot Technologies LP Lowers Holdings in IDEX Corporation $IEX

Quantbot Technologies LP lowered its stake in shares of IDEX Corporation (NYSE:IEX) by 54.2% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 29,505 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 34,941 shares during the period. Quantbot Technologies LP’s holdings in IDEX were worth $5,180,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of IEX. LPL Financial LLC grew its holdings in IDEX by 1.9% during the first quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 20,068 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $3,632,000 after acquiring an additional 366 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its position in IDEX by 11.0% in the 1st quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 7,743 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,401,000 after purchasing an additional 767 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its stake in shares of IDEX by 42.9% during the 1st quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 333 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of IDEX during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,064,000. Finally, Blair William & Co. IL lifted its stake in shares of IDEX by 14.9% in the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 4,091 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $740,000 after purchasing an additional 529 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

IDEX Stock Up 0.3%

IEX stock opened at $175.10 on Wednesday. IDEX Corporation has a 52 week low of $153.36 and a 52 week high of $231.93. The company has a quick ratio of 2.13, a current ratio of 2.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $167.01 and a 200-day simple moving average of $170.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.71, a P/E/G ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 1.04.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, December 16th. The industrial products company reported $1.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. IDEX had a return on equity of 15.20% and a net margin of 13.97%.The company had revenue of $712.00 million for the quarter. Equities analysts forecast that IDEX Corporation will post 8.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

IDEX declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, September 18th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the industrial products company to reacquire up to 8.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

IDEX Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 30th. Investors of record on Friday, January 16th will be given a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 16th. IDEX’s payout ratio is presently 44.94%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

IEX has been the topic of several analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of IDEX from $204.00 to $191.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their target price on shares of IDEX from $200.00 to $195.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of IDEX in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Oppenheimer set a $210.00 price target on IDEX in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $198.86.

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.