Guidance Capital Inc. Purchases Shares of 4,048 IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Guidance Capital Inc. purchased a new position in shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 4,048 shares of the industrial products company’s stock, valued at approximately $890,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp increased its stake in IDEX by 0.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,017,976 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $647,356,000 after acquiring an additional 15,077 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of IDEX by 108.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,830,929 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $607,234,000 after purchasing an additional 1,472,456 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of IDEX by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,891,175 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $404,339,000 after buying an additional 23,388 shares in the last quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of IDEX by 28.8% during the 3rd quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 1,223,676 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $262,479,000 after buying an additional 273,460 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its stake in IDEX by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,177,645 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $252,603,000 after buying an additional 14,360 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

IDEX Price Performance

IEX opened at $218.45 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 2.97 and a quick ratio of 2.11. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $218.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $212.10. IDEX Co. has a one year low of $189.51 and a one year high of $246.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.97.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $2.04 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.03 by $0.01. IDEX had a return on equity of 15.92% and a net margin of 15.35%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that IDEX Co. will post 7.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

IDEX Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 17th were given a dividend of $0.69 per share. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.26%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 17th. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio is 42.72%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

IEX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on IDEX from $244.00 to $256.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of IDEX from $245.00 to $241.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of IDEX from $248.00 to $258.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of IDEX from $269.00 to $267.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $242.86.

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.