IDEX (NYSE:IEX) Downgraded by Argus to “Hold”

Argus lowered shares of IDEX (NYSE:IEX) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Wednesday, Marketbeat reports.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on IEX. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of IDEX from $240.00 to $230.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of IDEX from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Thursday, July 11th. DA Davidson lowered their target price on IDEX from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 5th. Oppenheimer cut their price target on IDEX from $245.00 to $238.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on IDEX from $250.00 to $236.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, IDEX presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $235.33.

IDEX Stock Performance

IEX opened at $196.58 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $200.13 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $218.34. IDEX has a 52-week low of $183.76 and a 52-week high of $246.36. The company has a market cap of $14.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.87, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a quick ratio of 2.45, a current ratio of 3.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The industrial products company reported $2.06 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.04 by $0.02. IDEX had a net margin of 18.19% and a return on equity of 16.87%. The firm had revenue of $807.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $828.15 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.18 EPS. IDEX’s quarterly revenue was down 4.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that IDEX will post 7.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

IDEX Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 12th were given a dividend of $0.69 per share. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.40%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 12th. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.32%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On IDEX

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in IEX. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of IDEX in the fourth quarter valued at $518,000. Cerity Partners LLC acquired a new position in IDEX in the 4th quarter valued at about $372,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in IDEX during the fourth quarter worth about $999,000. Vontobel Holding Ltd. lifted its position in shares of IDEX by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 43,837 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $9,517,000 after purchasing an additional 5,075 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of IDEX by 25.6% in the fourth quarter. Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 388 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $84,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

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.