Arthur M. Cohen & Associates LLC Reduces Holdings in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Arthur M. Cohen & Associates LLC lowered its position in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 29.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,200 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 500 shares during the quarter. Arthur M. Cohen & Associates LLC’s holdings in IDEX were worth $251,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of IDEX by 0.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,017,976 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $647,356,000 after purchasing an additional 15,077 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in IDEX by 108.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,830,929 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $607,234,000 after buying an additional 1,472,456 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in IDEX by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,891,175 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $404,339,000 after acquiring an additional 23,388 shares during the period. Champlain Investment Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of IDEX by 28.8% during the third quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 1,223,676 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $262,479,000 after acquiring an additional 273,460 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in shares of IDEX by 1.2% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,177,645 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $252,603,000 after acquiring an additional 14,360 shares during the period. 97.96% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

IDEX Price Performance

Shares of IDEX stock opened at $215.67 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $16.33 billion, a PE ratio of 33.39, a P/E/G ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.97. The business has a 50 day moving average of $220.31 and a 200 day moving average of $210.34. IDEX Co. has a 52 week low of $189.51 and a 52 week high of $246.36. The company has a quick ratio of 2.11, a current ratio of 2.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The industrial products company reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.89 by $0.01. IDEX had a net margin of 15.35% and a return on equity of 15.92%. The company had revenue of $798.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $793.05 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.12 earnings per share. IDEX’s revenue was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that IDEX Co. will post 7.89 earnings per share for the current year.

IDEX Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Friday, January 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.69 per share. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 17th. IDEX’s payout ratio is currently 42.72%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. Citigroup reduced their target price on IDEX from $269.00 to $267.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of IDEX from $248.00 to $258.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of IDEX from $244.00 to $256.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on IDEX from $245.00 to $241.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, IDEX currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $242.86.

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.