First Bank & Trust Reduces Holdings in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

First Bank & Trust decreased its holdings in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 30.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,236 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 544 shares during the quarter. First Bank & Trust’s holdings in IDEX were worth $259,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of IDEX by 73.8% in the third quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC now owns 139 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. purchased a new position in shares of IDEX in the third quarter worth approximately $39,000. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in shares of IDEX in the third quarter worth approximately $86,000. Fred Alger Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of IDEX in the third quarter worth approximately $89,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of IDEX by 41.9% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 481 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $97,000 after buying an additional 142 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on IEX. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of IDEX from $244.00 to $256.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of IDEX from $245.00 to $241.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on shares of IDEX from $256.00 to $245.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of IDEX from $269.00 to $267.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, DA Davidson decreased their target price on shares of IDEX from $225.00 to $215.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $241.71.

IDEX Trading Down 1.4 %

IDEX stock opened at $195.92 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $14.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.46, a PEG ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 2.53 and a quick ratio of 1.85. IDEX Co. has a 1 year low of $189.51 and a 1 year high of $246.36. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $210.29 and its 200-day moving average price is $211.39.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $2.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.03 by $0.01. IDEX had a net margin of 15.45% and a return on equity of 16.08%. On average, equities analysts predict that IDEX Co. will post 8.31 earnings per share 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.