ING Groep NV Raises Stock Holdings in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

ING Groep NV lifted its stake in shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 174.7% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 60,125 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 38,239 shares during the period. ING Groep NV’s holdings in IDEX were worth $12,897,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC boosted 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 worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. acquired a new stake in IDEX in the 3rd quarter worth about $39,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC purchased a new stake in IDEX in the 2nd quarter valued at about $41,000. Whittier Trust Co. increased its stake in shares of IDEX by 38.4% during the 2nd quarter. Whittier Trust Co. now owns 209 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt lifted its holdings in shares of IDEX by 100.0% during the 3rd quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 200 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently issued reports on IEX shares. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on shares of IDEX from $240.00 to $230.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Oppenheimer lowered their price target on IDEX from $245.00 to $238.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on IDEX from $245.00 to $241.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on IDEX from $232.00 to $244.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Argus lowered shares of IDEX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, IDEX presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $241.14.

IDEX Trading Down 0.7 %

NYSE IEX opened at $229.39 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $211.55 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $207.74. The company has a market capitalization of $17.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 0.96. IDEX Co. has a 12 month low of $189.51 and a 12 month high of $246.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 2.97 and a quick ratio of 2.11.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The industrial products company reported $1.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.89 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $798.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $793.05 million. IDEX had a return on equity of 15.92% and a net margin of 15.35%. IDEX’s revenue for the quarter was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.12 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that IDEX Co. will post 7.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

IDEX Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 17th will be issued a $0.69 dividend. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 17th. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio is presently 42.72%.

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.