IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) Short Interest Down 23.1% in February

IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest in February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 984,800 shares, a drop of 23.1% from the January 31st total of 1,280,000 shares. Approximately 1.3% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 523,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.9 days.

IDEX Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of IDEX stock traded down $1.30 on Thursday, hitting $187.13. 64,394 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 536,655. IDEX has a one year low of $183.24 and a one year high of $246.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 2.53 and a quick ratio of 1.85. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.18 billion, a PE ratio of 28.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.99. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $206.17 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $211.45.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $2.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.03 by $0.01. IDEX had a return on equity of 16.08% and a net margin of 15.45%. On average, research analysts expect that IDEX will post 8.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on IEX shares. DA Davidson reduced their price objective on IDEX from $225.00 to $215.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of IDEX from $244.00 to $256.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of IDEX from $269.00 to $267.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of IDEX from $256.00 to $245.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $241.71.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Studio Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of IDEX by 4.9% during the third quarter. Studio Investment Management LLC now owns 955 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $205,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of IDEX by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 1,214 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $254,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Albert D Mason Inc. grew its position in shares of IDEX by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Albert D Mason Inc. now owns 4,532 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $948,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the period. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in IDEX by 73.8% during the 3rd quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC now owns 139 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Diversified Trust Co raised its holdings in IDEX by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 6,210 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $1,300,000 after buying an additional 59 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.