Royal Bank of Canada Lowers IDEX (NYSE:IEX) Price Target to $245.00

IDEX (NYSE:IEX - Free Report) had its target price lowered by Royal Bank of Canada from $256.00 to $245.00 in a research note published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the industrial products company's stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on IEX. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on IDEX from $244.00 to $256.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on IDEX from $245.00 to $241.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Citigroup decreased 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. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, IDEX currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $241.00.

IDEX Price Performance

Shares of IDEX stock traded up $0.51 during trading on Thursday, hitting $196.45. 655,977 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 520,357. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $216.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $212.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.54, a P/E/G ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a quick ratio of 2.11, a current ratio of 2.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. IDEX has a fifty-two week low of $189.51 and a fifty-two week high of $246.36.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $2.04 earnings per share (EPS) 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, equities analysts expect that IDEX will post 8.37 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

IDEX Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Friday, January 17th were given a dividend of $0.69 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 17th. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.40%. IDEX's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.50%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On IDEX

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of IDEX by 73.8% during the third 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. Assetmark Inc. acquired a new position in IDEX in the 3rd quarter worth $39,000. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt grew its stake in shares of IDEX by 100.0% during the third quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 200 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its position in shares of IDEX by 35.2% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 407 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $85,000 after acquiring an additional 106 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new position in shares of IDEX in the third quarter worth about $86,000. 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.