Investors hope IDEX (NYSE: IEX) will top analyst estimates once again after beating predictions by $0.02 in the previous quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday. IDEX is an applied solutions company, which is engaged in fluid and metering technologies, health and science technologies, dispensing equipment, and other products.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back IDEX, with nine of 12 rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like IDEX better than competitor Graco overall. Analysts still rate the stock a moderate buy, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $467.8 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 25.2% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.62 per share. Estimates range from $0.60 to $0.63.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 100% giving it an outperform rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars with 94.8% awarding it a rating of outperform. Fools are bullish on IDEX, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 26 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, IDEX's CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
IDEX's profit has risen year over year by an average of 27.5% over the past five quarters.

Now let's look at how efficient management is at running the business. Traditionally, margins represent the efficiency with which companies capture portions of sales dollars. The following table shows gross, operating, and net margins over the past four quarters.

Quarter

Q2

Q1

Q4

Q3

Gross Margin

40.7%

41.8%

40.0%

41.2%

Operating Margin

17.5%

18.2%

16.3%

16.7%

Net Margin

11.1%

11.2%

10.2%

10.3%

One final thing: If you want to keep tabs on IDEX movements, and for more analysis on the company, make sure you add it to your watchlist.

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