IDEX (NYSE:IEX) Upgraded to “Buy” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of IDEX (NYSE:IEX) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Tuesday.

Several other brokerages have also commented on IEX. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded IDEX from a hold rating to a buy rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $215.00 to $265.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on IDEX from $254.00 to $277.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an outperform rating and set a $255.00 price objective on shares of IDEX in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $238.78.

IDEX Price Performance

Shares of IEX opened at $227.04 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $17.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.96, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.97. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $236.41 and a 200-day moving average of $216.02. The company has a current ratio of 2.89, a quick ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. IDEX has a 52 week low of $183.76 and a 52 week high of $246.36.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The industrial products company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $788.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $767.96 million. IDEX had a return on equity of 18.56% and a net margin of 18.21%. The business’s revenue was down 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.01 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that IDEX will post 8.34 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of IDEX

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in IEX. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust raised its stake in IDEX by 120.3% during the 1st quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 141 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. Planned Solutions Inc. bought a new stake in IDEX during the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. Clear Street Markets LLC raised its stake in IDEX by 94.7% during the 1st quarter. Clear Street Markets LLC now owns 148 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 72 shares in the last quarter. Riverview Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of IDEX in the 1st quarter worth $35,000. Finally, Quarry LP bought a new stake in shares of IDEX in the 4th quarter worth $36,000. Institutional investors own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

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.