Handelsbanken Fonder AB Acquires 1,200 Shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its holdings in shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 6.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 20,800 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,200 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in IDEX were worth $4,353,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vontobel Holding Ltd. increased its position in shares of IDEX by 69.9% during the fourth quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 28,975 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $6,064,000 after acquiring an additional 11,925 shares in the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. grew its position in 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 worth $6,386,000 after purchasing an additional 1,209 shares in the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in IDEX in the 4th quarter worth about $215,000. Empowered Funds LLC grew its position in IDEX by 22.9% in the 4th quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 1,592 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $333,000 after purchasing an additional 297 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vest Financial LLC grew its position in IDEX by 61.2% in the 4th quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 11,530 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $2,413,000 after purchasing an additional 4,376 shares in the last quarter. 97.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on IEX shares. DA Davidson reduced their price objective on shares of IDEX from $225.00 to $215.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced 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. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective 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. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of IDEX from $269.00 to $267.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of IDEX from $244.00 to $256.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $241.71.

IDEX Stock Down 1.6 %

IEX opened at $192.96 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.85, a current ratio of 2.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The stock has a market cap of $14.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.02, a PEG ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.97. IDEX Co. has a twelve month low of $189.51 and a twelve month high of $246.36. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $209.69 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $211.68.

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

IDEX Company 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.