Norges Bank Makes New Investment in IDEX Corporation $IEX

Norges Bank purchased a new stake in IDEX Corporation (NYSE:IEX) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 888,585 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $156,009,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in IDEX by 19.7% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,050,601 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $914,007,000 after buying an additional 831,005 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in IDEX by 1,232.4% during the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 487,274 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $88,182,000 after purchasing an additional 450,704 shares during the last quarter. Flossbach Von Storch SE boosted its position in IDEX by 132.8% during the second quarter. Flossbach Von Storch SE now owns 640,792 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $112,504,000 after purchasing an additional 365,525 shares in the last quarter. Amundi grew its holdings in IDEX by 23.4% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 1,249,546 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $220,849,000 after purchasing an additional 236,650 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Primecap Management Co. CA increased its position in shares of IDEX by 80.1% in the second quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 493,451 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $86,635,000 after buying an additional 219,501 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

IDEX Stock Performance

NYSE:IEX opened at $175.10 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 2.93 and a quick ratio of 2.13. The firm has a market cap of $13.11 billion, a PE ratio of 27.71, a P/E/G ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 1.04. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $167.01 and a 200-day simple moving average of $170.93. IDEX Corporation has a 1-year low of $153.36 and a 1-year high of $231.93.

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

IDEX Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 30th. Investors of record on Friday, January 16th will be paid a $0.71 dividend. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 16th. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.94%.

IDEX announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, September 18th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the industrial products company to purchase up to 8.3% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

IEX has been the topic of several recent research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of IDEX from $200.00 to $195.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of IDEX in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Oppenheimer set a $210.00 price objective on shares of IDEX in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on IDEX from $204.00 to $191.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, IDEX currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $198.86.

About IDEX

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.