Montanaro Asset Management Ltd Trims Stake in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Montanaro Asset Management Ltd decreased its position in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX - Free Report) by 17.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 45,000 shares of the industrial products company's stock after selling 9,400 shares during the period. IDEX makes up about 1.9% of Montanaro Asset Management Ltd's portfolio, making the stock its 22nd biggest holding. Montanaro Asset Management Ltd owned about 0.06% of IDEX worth $9,418,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of IDEX by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 30,250 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $6,386,000 after purchasing an additional 1,209 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its stake in IDEX by 48.3% during the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 20,632 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $4,426,000 after acquiring an additional 6,720 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of IDEX by 129.1% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 417 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $87,000 after acquiring an additional 235 shares during the last quarter. Covea Finance raised its holdings in shares of IDEX by 70.6% during the fourth quarter. Covea Finance now owns 14,500 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $3,035,000 after purchasing an additional 6,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC lifted its position in IDEX by 1.2% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,177,645 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $252,603,000 after purchasing an additional 14,360 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.96% of the company's stock.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

IDEX Price Performance

NYSE:IEX traded down $1.72 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $179.19. 80,382 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 552,540. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $197.16 and its 200 day moving average price is $209.49. The company has a current ratio of 2.53, a quick ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The company has a market cap of $13.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.95, a P/E/G ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.99. IDEX Co. has a 52-week low of $176.39 and a 52-week high of $244.11.

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, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.03 by $0.01. IDEX had a net margin of 15.45% and a return on equity of 16.08%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that IDEX Co. will post 8.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

IDEX 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.