Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. Increases Holdings in IDEX Corporation $IEX

Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in IDEX Corporation (NYSE:IEX) by 6.8% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 141,793 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,970 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. owned approximately 0.19% of IDEX worth $24,895,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of IEX. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in IDEX by 19.7% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,050,601 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $914,007,000 after purchasing an additional 831,005 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of IDEX by 15.4% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,545,463 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $279,682,000 after buying an additional 206,633 shares in the last quarter. Amundi grew its holdings in shares of IDEX by 23.4% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 1,249,546 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $220,849,000 after buying an additional 236,650 shares during the last quarter. Fenimore Asset Management Inc increased its position in shares of IDEX by 2.0% during the second quarter. Fenimore Asset Management Inc now owns 872,652 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $153,211,000 after acquiring an additional 16,701 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its holdings in IDEX by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 769,341 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $139,228,000 after acquiring an additional 21,787 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.96% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently issued reports on IEX. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on IDEX from $204.00 to $191.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 20th. DA Davidson set a $180.00 price target on IDEX and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price objective on IDEX from $200.00 to $195.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of IDEX in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Oppenheimer set a $210.00 target price on shares of IDEX in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, IDEX currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $198.86.

IDEX Stock Performance

IEX stock opened at $169.43 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 2.93 and a quick ratio of 2.13. IDEX Corporation has a 1 year low of $153.36 and a 1 year high of $237.38. The company has a market cap of $12.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 1.04. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $164.89 and its 200-day moving average price is $172.35.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last posted its earnings results on Friday, December 16th. The industrial products company reported $1.79 earnings per share for the quarter. The company had revenue of $712.00 million for the quarter. IDEX had a return on equity of 15.20% and a net margin of 13.97%. On average, equities analysts forecast that IDEX Corporation will post 8.26 earnings per share for the current year.

IDEX Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 24th. Investors of record on Friday, October 10th were given a dividend of $0.71 per share. This represents a $2.84 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 10th. IDEX’s payout ratio is 44.94%.

IDEX declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 18th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the industrial products company to purchase up to 8.3% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.