IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) Short Interest Update

IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) was the target of a large drop in short interest in the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 1,420,000 shares, a drop of 9.0% from the November 15th total of 1,560,000 shares. Approximately 1.9% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 581,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.4 days.

Institutional Trading of IDEX

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of IEX. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in IDEX by 108.4% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,830,929 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $607,234,000 after purchasing an additional 1,472,456 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in IDEX by 9,424.6% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,032,277 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $211,473,000 after acquiring an additional 1,021,439 shares during the last quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC lifted its stake in IDEX by 28.8% during the third quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 1,223,676 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $262,479,000 after purchasing an additional 273,460 shares during the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its stake in shares of IDEX by 75.6% in the 2nd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 519,124 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $104,179,000 after purchasing an additional 223,422 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DF Dent & Co. Inc. bought a new position in IDEX in the third quarter valued at about $31,747,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

IDEX Stock Performance

Shares of IEX stock traded down $1.82 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $222.26. 898,664 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 486,250. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $221.47 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $209.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a current ratio of 2.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.41, a PEG ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 0.96. IDEX has a 52 week low of $189.51 and a 52 week high of $246.36.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The industrial products company reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.89 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $798.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $793.05 million. IDEX had a return on equity of 15.92% and a net margin of 15.35%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.12 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that IDEX will post 7.89 earnings per share for the current year.

IDEX Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Friday, January 17th will be given a dividend of $0.69 per share. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 17th. IDEX’s dividend payout ratio is 42.72%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on IEX. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on IDEX from $248.00 to $258.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Citigroup increased their target price on IDEX from $251.00 to $269.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on IDEX from $244.00 to $256.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on IDEX from $245.00 to $241.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, IDEX currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $243.14.

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.