Natixis Advisors LLC Purchases 11,046 Shares of IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX)

Natixis Advisors LLC increased its stake in IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX - Free Report) by 42.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 37,035 shares of the industrial products company's stock after acquiring an additional 11,046 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC's holdings in IDEX were worth $7,944,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in shares of 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 worth $211,473,000 after acquiring an additional 1,021,439 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in IDEX by 7.5% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,964,956 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $1,943,609,000 after purchasing an additional 555,250 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its stake in IDEX by 75.6% during 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 period. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of IDEX by 247.0% in the second quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 198,170 shares of the industrial products company's stock valued at $39,872,000 after purchasing an additional 141,064 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC boosted its position in shares of IDEX by 1,541.6% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 138,744 shares of the industrial products company's stock worth $27,915,000 after buying an additional 130,292 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.96% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on IEX shares. Oppenheimer reduced their price objective on IDEX from $245.00 to $238.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of IDEX from $232.00 to $244.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Argus downgraded shares of IDEX from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. DA Davidson cut their target price on shares of IDEX from $220.00 to $210.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on shares of IDEX from $245.00 to $241.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $241.14.

IDEX Stock Performance

IDEX stock traded up $5.05 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $232.50. 409,740 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 481,717. IDEX Co. has a 12 month low of $189.51 and a 12 month high of $246.36. The company has a current ratio of 2.97, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $214.43 and a 200 day moving average of $207.89. The firm has a market cap of $17.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.22, a PEG ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.96.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX - Get Free Report) last released 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 firm had revenue of $798.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $793.05 million. IDEX had a net margin of 15.35% and a return on equity of 15.92%. The business's revenue was up .6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.12 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that IDEX Co. will post 7.88 earnings per share for the current year.

IDEX Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 17th will be given a $0.69 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 17th. This represents a $2.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.19%. IDEX's dividend payout ratio is 42.72%.

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.