Short Interest in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) Declines By 9.0%

IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 1,420,000 shares, a decrease of 9.0% from the November 15th total of 1,560,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 581,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.4 days. Currently, 1.9% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of IDEX from $245.00 to $241.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Citigroup increased their price objective on IDEX from $251.00 to $269.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on IDEX from $244.00 to $256.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on IDEX from $248.00 to $258.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $243.14.

IDEX Stock Down 0.8 %

IEX traded down $1.82 on Tuesday, hitting $222.26. The company had a trading volume of 898,664 shares, compared to its average volume of 486,250. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a current ratio of 2.97. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $221.47 and a 200-day moving average price of $209.09. IDEX has a 12-month low of $189.51 and a 12-month high of $246.36.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The industrial products company reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.89 by $0.01. IDEX had a net margin of 15.35% and a return on equity of 15.92%. The firm had revenue of $798.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $793.05 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.12 EPS. IDEX’s revenue was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that IDEX will post 7.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

IDEX Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Friday, January 17th will be given a dividend of $0.69 per share. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 17th. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.72%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On IDEX

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of IDEX by 73.8% during the third quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC now owns 139 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. acquired a new position in shares of IDEX in the third quarter valued at about $39,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of IDEX in the second quarter worth about $41,000. Whittier Trust Co. boosted its position in IDEX by 38.4% in the second quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 209 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt increased its holdings in IDEX by 100.0% in the 3rd quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 200 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $43,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

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.