Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Purchases 566 Shares of IDEX Corporation $IEX

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its position in IDEX Corporation (NYSE:IEX) by 0.3% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 173,298 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after buying an additional 566 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned 0.23% of IDEX worth $30,426,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Forum Financial Management LP boosted its holdings in shares of IDEX by 14.6% in the 2nd quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 1,474 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $259,000 after buying an additional 188 shares in the last quarter. Ethic Inc. bought a new stake in shares of IDEX in the 2nd quarter valued at about $225,000. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of IDEX by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 3,112 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $546,000 after buying an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its position in shares of IDEX by 9.5% in the 2nd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 112,957 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $19,916,000 after purchasing an additional 9,810 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of IDEX in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $265,000. 97.96% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on IEX shares. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of IDEX in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of IDEX from $207.00 to $200.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. DA Davidson set a $180.00 price objective on shares of IDEX and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of IDEX from $208.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of IDEX from $204.00 to $191.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, October 20th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $199.57.

IDEX Price Performance

Shares of NYSE IEX opened at $166.90 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.96, a PEG ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.04. IDEX Corporation has a 12 month low of $153.36 and a 12 month high of $238.22. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $164.00 and its 200-day simple moving average is $172.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 3.05 and a quick ratio of 2.13.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, December 16th. The industrial products company reported $1.79 EPS for the quarter. The business had revenue of $712.00 million for the quarter. IDEX had a net margin of 14.05% and a return on equity of 15.16%. Analysts expect that IDEX Corporation will post 8.26 EPS for the current year.

IDEX announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Thursday, September 18th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the industrial products company to buy up to 8.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

IDEX Announces Dividend

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

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.