Montag A & Associates Inc. Sells 780 Shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Montag A & Associates Inc. trimmed its position in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 9.6% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 7,340 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 780 shares during the period. Montag A & Associates Inc.’s holdings in IDEX were worth $1,791,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in IDEX by 1,196.4% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 135,825 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $29,598,000 after buying an additional 125,348 shares in the last quarter. UBS Group AG increased its position in IDEX by 177.3% in the 4th quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 57,255 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $12,431,000 after buying an additional 36,606 shares in the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc increased its position in IDEX by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 2,190,741 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $475,632,000 after buying an additional 84,502 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG increased its position in IDEX by 13.3% in the 3rd quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 244,610 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $50,884,000 after buying an additional 28,661 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates boosted its stake in IDEX by 11.2% during the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 76,465 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $16,601,000 after purchasing an additional 7,684 shares during the last quarter. 97.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

IEX has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on IDEX from $260.00 to $256.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $255.00 price target on shares of IDEX in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Citigroup lifted their price target on IDEX from $254.00 to $277.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on IDEX from $245.00 to $252.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded IDEX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. Two equities research 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 presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $250.71.

IDEX Stock Performance

IEX stock traded up $2.52 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $206.98. 120,219 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 418,704. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $207.92 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $220.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 2.45 and a current ratio of 3.37. IDEX Co. has a 52 week low of $183.76 and a 52 week high of $246.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.67 billion, a PE ratio of 26.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.96.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $801.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $807.52 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.09 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that IDEX Co. will post 8.3 EPS for the current year.

IDEX Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 12th will be issued a $0.69 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 12th. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.33%. IDEX’s payout ratio is currently 36.32%.

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.