IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) Short Interest Down 7.1% in March

IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 748,600 shares, a decline of 7.1% from the March 15th total of 805,500 shares. Currently, 1.0% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 377,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.0 days.

Institutional Trading of IDEX

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in IEX. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust raised its holdings in IDEX by 120.3% in the first quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 141 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. Planned Solutions Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of IDEX during the fourth quarter worth $33,000. Clear Street Markets LLC raised its holdings in shares of IDEX by 94.7% during the first quarter. Clear Street Markets LLC now owns 148 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares during the period. Riverview Trust Co acquired a new stake in shares of IDEX during the first quarter worth $35,000. Finally, Quarry LP acquired a new stake in shares of IDEX during the fourth quarter worth $36,000. 97.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on IEX shares. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of IDEX from $254.00 to $277.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of IDEX from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $215.00 to $265.00 in a report on Thursday, February 8th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of IDEX from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $255.00 target price on shares of IDEX in a report on Thursday, March 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, IDEX presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $238.00.

IDEX Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE IEX traded down $1.24 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $229.25. 355,764 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 276,633. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $236.34 and its 200 day moving average price is $215.73. IDEX has a twelve month low of $183.76 and a twelve month high of $246.36. The company has a quick ratio of 2.05, a current ratio of 2.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The company has a market capitalization of $17.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.97.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The industrial products company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.05. IDEX had a net margin of 18.21% and a return on equity of 18.56%. The business had revenue of $788.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $767.96 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.01 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that IDEX will post 8.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.