Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Raises Holdings in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. lifted its position in shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 6.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 34,557 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,973 shares during the period. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in IDEX were worth $7,232,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of IDEX by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 30,250 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $6,386,000 after purchasing an additional 1,209 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its holdings in IDEX by 48.3% in the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 20,632 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $4,426,000 after purchasing an additional 6,720 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. increased its position in shares of IDEX by 129.1% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 417 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $87,000 after purchasing an additional 235 shares during the last quarter. Covea Finance increased its stake in shares of IDEX by 70.6% in the 4th quarter. Covea Finance now owns 14,500 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $3,035,000 after purchasing an additional 6,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its stake 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 buying an additional 14,360 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

IDEX Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE IEX opened at $182.02 on Monday. IDEX Co. has a twelve month low of $177.71 and a twelve month high of $245.70. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $200.23 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $209.94. The firm has a market cap of $13.79 billion, a PE ratio of 27.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a quick ratio of 1.85, a current ratio of 2.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $2.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.03 by $0.01. IDEX had a return on equity of 16.08% and a net margin of 15.45%. Analysts expect that IDEX Co. will post 8.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on IDEX from $244.00 to $256.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of IDEX from $256.00 to $245.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. DA Davidson dropped their target price on IDEX from $225.00 to $215.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price target on shares of IDEX from $269.00 to $267.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $241.71.

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.