IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) Short Interest Up 9.4% in January

IDEX Co. (NYSE:IEX) was the target of a significant growth in short interest during the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,280,000 shares, a growth of 9.4% from the January 15th total of 1,170,000 shares. Currently, 1.7% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 557,400 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.3 days.

IDEX Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE IEX traded up $2.18 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $195.21. 644,030 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 482,422. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $212.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $211.56. The company has a market capitalization of $14.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.97. IDEX has a 12 month low of $189.51 and a 12 month 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 2.11.

IDEX (NYSE:IEX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The industrial products company reported $2.04 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 expect that IDEX will post 8.37 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on IEX shares. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of IDEX from $244.00 to $256.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of IDEX from $269.00 to $267.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price 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. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of IDEX from $245.00 to $241.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, IDEX has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $241.00.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On IDEX

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in IEX. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in IDEX by 108.4% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,830,929 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $607,234,000 after acquiring an additional 1,472,456 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in IDEX in the 4th quarter valued at $217,658,000. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in IDEX by 9,424.6% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,032,277 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $211,473,000 after buying an additional 1,021,439 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in IDEX by 8.2% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 3,666,777 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $767,421,000 after buying an additional 277,964 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Champlain Investment Partners LLC increased its stake in IDEX by 28.8% in the 3rd quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 1,223,676 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $262,479,000 after buying an additional 273,460 shares during the last quarter. 97.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.