Prudential Financial Inc. Decreases Holdings in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Prudential Financial Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 14.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 40,154 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 6,700 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc.’s holdings in IDEX were worth $8,911,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in IDEX by 4.2% during the fourth 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. Assetmark Inc. raised its stake in IDEX by 129.1% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 417 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $87,000 after acquiring an additional 235 shares in the last quarter. Covea Finance lifted its position in IDEX by 70.6% in the fourth quarter. Covea Finance now owns 14,500 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $3,035,000 after acquiring an additional 6,000 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in shares of IDEX by 1.2% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,177,645 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $252,603,000 after purchasing an additional 14,360 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its position in shares of IDEX by 27.0% during the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 2,330 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $488,000 after purchasing an additional 495 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

IDEX Stock Down 1.7 %

Shares of NYSE:IEX opened at $180.80 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $13.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.19, a PEG ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.99. IDEX Co. has a fifty-two week low of $177.71 and a fifty-two week high of $244.11. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $197.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $209.40. 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 released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $2.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that IDEX Co. will post 8.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on IEX. DA Davidson decreased their target price on 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 lowered their target price on shares of IDEX from $256.00 to $245.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of IDEX from $244.00 to $256.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of IDEX from $269.00 to $267.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target 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.