Bahl & Gaynor Inc. Sells 219 Shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Bahl & Gaynor Inc. cut its stake in shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 7.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 2,850 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 219 shares during the period. Bahl & Gaynor Inc.’s holdings in IDEX were worth $619,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Impax Asset Management Group plc lifted its holdings in shares of IDEX by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 2,190,741 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $475,632,000 after acquiring an additional 84,502 shares during the period. Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in shares of IDEX by 3.3% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,143,583 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $237,890,000 after acquiring an additional 36,928 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of IDEX by 6.1% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 785,716 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $163,445,000 after buying an additional 45,120 shares in the last quarter. Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt increased its stake in shares of IDEX by 420.8% in the fourth quarter. Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt now owns 781,172 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $169,600,000 after buying an additional 631,172 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of IDEX by 1.3% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 593,542 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $123,469,000 after buying an additional 7,559 shares in the last quarter. 97.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Oppenheimer raised their target price on IDEX from $245.00 to $252.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Citigroup raised their target price on IDEX from $254.00 to $277.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. StockNews.com lowered IDEX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $255.00 target price on shares of IDEX in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on IDEX from $260.00 to $256.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Two 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 stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $241.67.

IDEX Price Performance

Shares of IEX stock opened at $220.66 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $236.36 and a 200 day moving average price of $216.75. The company has a quick ratio of 2.05, a current ratio of 3.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The firm has a market cap of $16.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.03, a PEG ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.97. IDEX Co. has a 12 month low of $183.76 and a 12 month high of $246.36.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.76 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $801.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $807.52 million. IDEX had a return on equity of 17.60% and a net margin of 17.89%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.09 EPS. Research analysts expect that IDEX Co. will post 8.33 EPS for the current year.

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.