Primecap Management Co. CA Sells 8,790 Shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Primecap Management Co. CA lessened its holdings in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) by 2.6% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 324,380 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after selling 8,790 shares during the period. Primecap Management Co. CA’s holdings in IDEX were worth $70,426,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of IDEX in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $237,425,000. Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt increased its position in IDEX by 420.8% during the 4th quarter. Alecta Tjanstepension Omsesidigt now owns 781,172 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $169,600,000 after buying an additional 631,172 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of IDEX by 316.9% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 368,849 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $76,667,000 after buying an additional 280,385 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of IDEX by 6,079.1% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 189,143 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $41,065,000 after buying an additional 186,082 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Asset Management Holding S.A. boosted its position in shares of IDEX by 67.1% in the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Asset Management Holding S.A. now owns 376,272 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $81,692,000 after acquiring an additional 151,161 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have weighed in on IEX shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of IDEX from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 18th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of IDEX from $254.00 to $277.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded IDEX from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $215.00 to $265.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $255.00 price objective on shares of IDEX in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on IDEX from $260.00 to $256.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $250.71.

IDEX Price Performance

IEX traded down $0.39 during trading on Friday, hitting $215.15. 493,996 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 409,066. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $230.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $220.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 3.37 and a quick ratio of 2.45. IDEX Co. has a twelve month low of $183.76 and a twelve month high of $246.36. The company has a market cap of $16.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.31, a PEG ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 0.99.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The industrial products company reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.76 by $0.12. IDEX had a return on equity of 17.60% and a net margin of 17.89%. The company had revenue of $801.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $807.52 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.09 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that IDEX Co. will post 8.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

IDEX Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a $0.69 dividend. This is an increase from IDEX’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.64. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.32%.

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.