Sheets Smith Wealth Management Invests $700,000 in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Sheets Smith Wealth Management acquired a new position in shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 2,870 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $700,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of IEX. Planned Solutions Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of IDEX in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Riverview Trust Co acquired a new stake in shares of IDEX in the first quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in IDEX during the 4th quarter worth $36,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC acquired a new stake in IDEX during the 4th quarter worth $48,000. Finally, VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC acquired a new stake in IDEX during the 4th quarter worth $50,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $255.00 price target on shares of IDEX in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on shares of IDEX from $260.00 to $256.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of IDEX from $254.00 to $277.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of IDEX from $245.00 to $252.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of IDEX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, IDEX presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $250.71.

IDEX Stock Performance

IEX traded down $0.31 on Wednesday, reaching $210.50. The company had a trading volume of 451,589 shares, compared to its average volume of 422,840. IDEX Co. has a fifty-two week low of $183.76 and a fifty-two week high of $246.36. The stock has a market cap of $15.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.79, a P/E/G ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.95. The company’s fifty day moving average is $207.39 and its 200 day moving average is $220.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 2.45 and a current ratio of 3.37.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $801.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $807.52 million. IDEX had a net margin of 17.89% and a return on equity of 17.60%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.09 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that IDEX Co. will post 8.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

IDEX Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.69 per share. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 12th. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.32%.

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.