Nicholas Company Inc. Increases Position in IDEX Corporation $IEX

Nicholas Company Inc. lifted its holdings in IDEX Corporation (NYSE:IEX) by 19.4% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 103,553 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 16,800 shares during the quarter. Nicholas Company Inc.’s holdings in IDEX were worth $18,181,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Horizon Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of IDEX by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. Horizon Investments LLC now owns 1,087 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $197,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC raised its holdings in shares of IDEX by 3.4% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 1,646 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $298,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the period. Alps Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of IDEX by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 5,990 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $1,084,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the period. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. raised its holdings in shares of IDEX by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 3,112 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $546,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the period. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in shares of IDEX by 21.5% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 446 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $78,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on IEX shares. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of IDEX in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Oppenheimer set a $210.00 price target on shares of IDEX in a report on Tuesday, October 7th. DA Davidson set a $180.00 price target on shares of IDEX and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of IDEX from $208.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 14th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price target on shares of IDEX from $200.00 to $195.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $198.86.

IDEX Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of IEX stock opened at $171.56 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $164.42 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $172.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 2.93 and a quick ratio of 2.13. IDEX Corporation has a 1 year low of $153.36 and a 1 year high of $238.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.15, a PEG ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 1.04.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last issued its earnings results on Friday, December 16th. The industrial products company reported $1.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. IDEX had a net margin of 13.97% and a return on equity of 15.20%. The business had revenue of $712.00 million for the quarter. As a group, analysts anticipate that IDEX Corporation will post 8.26 earnings per share for the current year.

IDEX Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 10th were issued a $0.71 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 10th. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.7%. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.94%.

IDEX declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Thursday, September 18th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the industrial products company to buy up to 8.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.