BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. Cuts Position in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. lowered its holdings in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 27.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 273,285 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 102,987 shares during the period. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. owned approximately 0.36% of IDEX worth $66,687,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in IEX. Albert D Mason Inc. increased its holdings in IDEX by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Albert D Mason Inc. now owns 4,509 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $1,100,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Czech National Bank raised its holdings in shares of IDEX by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 13,306 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $3,247,000 after buying an additional 61 shares during the period. DB Fitzpatrick & Co Inc lifted its position in IDEX by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. DB Fitzpatrick & Co Inc now owns 2,833 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $615,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Greenleaf Trust boosted its holdings in IDEX by 6.7% in the 1st quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 1,120 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $273,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the period. Finally, Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of IDEX by 25.6% during the fourth quarter. Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 388 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $84,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on IEX. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on shares of IDEX from $260.00 to $256.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $255.00 target price on shares of IDEX in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Oppenheimer increased their price target on IDEX from $245.00 to $252.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. StockNews.com downgraded IDEX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 11th. Finally, 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 note on Monday, April 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, IDEX has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $250.71.

IDEX Stock Performance

Shares of IEX stock traded down $0.60 on Thursday, hitting $209.90. 80,724 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 421,001. The company’s fifty day moving average is $207.16 and its 200 day moving average is $219.97. IDEX Co. has a 1-year low of $183.76 and a 1-year high of $246.36. The company has a market capitalization of $15.89 billion, a PE ratio of 27.70, a PEG ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 3.37 and a quick ratio of 2.45.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.76 by $0.12. IDEX had a net margin of 17.89% and a return on equity of 17.60%. The company had revenue of $801.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $807.52 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.09 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that IDEX Co. will post 8.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

IDEX Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced 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 annualized dividend 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 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.