IDEX Corporation (IEX): BCG Matrix [Dec-2025 Updated]

You're looking for a clear, no-fluff breakdown of IDEX Corporation's (IEX) portfolio, and honestly, the BCG Matrix is the perfect lens for this diversified industrial tech player. As we map out their late 2025 standing, we see the Health & Science Technologies segment shining as a Star, while the Fluid & Metering Technologies segment locks in cash with a 35.0% adjusted EBITDA margin, clearly acting as a Cash Cow. However, not everything is smooth sailing; some cyclical areas are lagging as Dogs, and the recent billion-dollar Mott acquisition sits squarely as a Question Mark needing focus. Dive in below to see exactly where IDEX needs to invest, hold, or divest to maximize returns.

Background of IDEX Corporation (IEX)

You're looking at IDEX Corporation (IEX) as of late 2025, and honestly, the story is one of resilience mixed with strategic integration. This industrial technology firm, headquartered in Lake Forest, Illinois, organizes its business around three core segments: Fluid & Metering Technologies (FMT), Health & Science Technologies (HST), and Fire & Safety/Diversified Products (FSDP). These divisions serve a wide array of mission-critical end markets, from industrial processing and water infrastructure to life sciences and aerospace.

For the first nine months of 2025, IDEX Corporation showed top-line strength, with trailing twelve-month revenue hitting approximately $3.421B as of September 30, 2025. The third quarter itself brought in net sales of $878.7 million, marking a solid increase year-over-year, even as the company navigates a complex macro environment. Management is focused on what they can control, leaning heavily on their 80/20 principle to drive momentum.

The Health & Science Technologies (HST) segment has been the clear growth engine recently. In Q3 2025, HST revenue jumped 22% year-over-year to $381.0 million, with organic sales up 10%. This momentum is fueled by strong demand in life sciences, pharmaceutical consumables, data center applications, and the integration of recent acquisitions like Mott and Micro-LAM. It's definitely pulling the overall company forward.

The Fluid & Metering Technologies (FMT) segment also posted gains, reporting Q3 sales of $317.1 million, a 5% increase over the prior year, with organic growth around 4%. This was largely due to successful price realization and steady demand in municipal water and industrial end markets. The company is seeing good volume in industrial businesses, which helps offset softness elsewhere.

However, not every part of the portfolio is firing on all cylinders. The Fire & Safety/Diversified Products (FSDP) segment experienced a dip, with Q3 net sales falling 3% year-over-year to $181.9 million. Headwinds here include weakness in the dispensing business due to project timing and softer demand for fire OEM products and rescue tools. This segment is certainly a point of focus for resource allocation.

Looking ahead to the full year 2025, IDEX Corporation has narrowed its organic sales growth expectation to about 1%, reflecting the near-term uncertainty and tariff impacts they've mentioned. The revised full-year adjusted EPS guidance sits in the $7.86 - $7.91 per share range. On the financial health front, the company remains committed to shareholder returns, having repurchased $50.0 million in stock during the second quarter, and they are on track to achieve at least 100% free cash flow conversion for the year.

IDEX Corporation (IEX) - BCG Matrix: Stars

The Health & Science Technologies (HST) segment of IDEX Corporation is positioned as a Star within the portfolio, characterized by its high growth trajectory relative to other segments. Management projected the HST segment to lead the overall organic revenue growth for fiscal year 2025, targeting a high single-digit potential for the segment. This positioning is supported by concrete performance figures from the third quarter of 2025, where the HST segment delivered a substantial 22% sales increase, far outpacing the company's consolidated organic sales growth of 5% for that period. The organic revenue growth for HST in Q3 2025 was reported at 10%, demonstrating strong underlying market demand for its specialized offerings.

The Star status of HST is fundamentally tied to its focus on mission-critical, high-growth end markets. The segment is the home for IDEX Corporation's precision fluidics and optical filters businesses, which serve the Life Sciences and Pharmaceutical markets. Growth in these areas is expected to be supported by demand for new disease therapies.

To illustrate the segment's financial strength and growth profile as of the latest reported quarter, consider these key metrics:

Furthermore, IDEX Corporation is seeing strong, targeted growth wins within the defense-optics and space systems areas, which are key components of the HST segment's future. Management outlook for 2025 specifically cited global communication satellite network expansion as a driver for this part of the business.

The momentum in the HST segment is also being fueled by infrastructure-related applications, specifically data center cooling. This area, along with the aforementioned space and defense sectors, is noted as a key driver for the segment's performance. The company secured a large clean water project win via the Mott acquisition, which is integrated into HST, further bolstering its order book.

The core areas driving the Star classification for IDEX Corporation's HST segment include:

• Life Sciences fluidics and optics technologies.
• Pharmaceutical market solutions.
• Defense-optics and space systems contracts.
• Data center cooling infrastructure demand.
• Precision fluidics for critical liquid/gas movement.

The current strategy for IDEX Corporation is to invest in these Stars to ensure they mature into Cash Cows when the high-growth markets eventually slow. The company's focus on platform optimization and strategic bolt-on acquisitions, like Mott, is designed to scale these high-quality businesses.

IDEX Corporation (IEX) - BCG Matrix: Cash Cows

The Fluid & Metering Technologies (FMT) segment represents a core Cash Cow for IDEX Corporation, operating within mature markets that demand mission-critical pumps and valves for industrial processing and water infrastructure. This segment has achieved a high market share, translating directly into superior profitability metrics, even as its organic sales experienced a slight contraction.

Here are the key financial metrics for the Fluid & Metering Technologies segment for the second quarter of 2025:

The 35.0% Adjusted EBITDA margin for FMT in Q2 2025 clearly signals its position as a market leader generating substantial cash flow relative to its support needs. This profitability was driven by positive price/cost dynamics and net productivity improvements, which offset volume deleverage. The segment's offerings include mission-critical pumps and valves supporting mature water and industrial processing markets.

Core municipal water solutions within this segment provide a foundation of stable, recurring revenue. For instance, a significant $40 million multiyear contract was secured by the acquired Mott business, focusing on wastewater filtration solutions, with bookings expected to contribute to revenue in the second half of 2025. This type of long-term, non-discretionary demand underpins the segment's reliable cash generation.

The cash-generating power of IDEX Corporation's portfolio, heavily supported by its Cash Cows, is evident in the overall corporate free cash flow:

• IDEX Corporation Free Cash Flow for Q2 2025 was $147 million.
• This represented a 25% increase year-over-year from Q2 2024.
• Total consolidated sales for Q2 2025 reached $865.2 million.
• The company increased its share repurchase authorization to $1.0 billion in September 2025.
• The current quarterly dividend rate is $0.71 per share.

IDEX Corporation (IEX) - BCG Matrix: Dogs

The Dogs quadrant represents business units or product lines characterized by low market share in low-growth markets. These areas frequently break even, tying up capital without generating significant returns, making divestiture a common strategic consideration for IDEX Corporation.

Cyclically down businesses, such as those tied to the automotive and agriculture end markets, are candidates for this classification due to softer demand observed in 2025. In the first quarter of 2025, IDEX Corporation specifically noted softer demand in its agricultural and automotive-related businesses. This softness persisted into the second quarter, where the chemical, water, energy, and agriculture businesses within the Fluid & Metering Technologies (FMT) segment all experienced lower volumes year-over-year.

The core example aligning with the Dog profile is found within the FMT segment, specifically certain industrial day-rate businesses. In the second quarter of 2025, the FMT segment reported an organic sales decline of 2%, driven by lower volumes in these end markets, which directly resulted in volume deleverage. While the segment's Adjusted EBITDA margin improved to 35.0% in Q2 2025, an increase of 130 basis points year-over-year, this improvement was attributed to positive price/cost dynamics and productivity efforts, not underlying volume growth, suggesting the core business health remains challenged.

Here's a look at the Q2 2025 performance metrics for the segments facing these headwinds:

The challenge for these units is their position in mature, non-strategic industrial end markets where market share is low relative to competitors, or where the product lines have not kept pace with the high-growth areas IDEX Corporation is prioritizing, such as data centers or advanced optics within HST. The company's overall organic sales growth for Q2 2025 was only 1%, indicating that the drag from these lower-growth areas is significant enough to temper overall results, despite strong performance elsewhere.

The strategy for these units is typically avoidance or minimization. Expensive turn-around plans are often avoided because the low-growth market structure limits the potential upside. The focus shifts to managing cash flow or preparing for divestiture. For instance, while FMT's Q3 2025 net sales did recover to $317.1 million, an increase of 5% year-over-year, this was against a challenging prior-year comparison, and the segment's overall order pattern remains subject to the volatility of its end markets.

You should note the following characteristics associated with these Dog-like areas:

• Softness persisted in automotive and parts of the semiconductor businesses in Q2 2025.
• The full-year 2025 organic sales growth guidance remains modest at 1%.
• Platform optimization and delayering initiatives delivered $14 million in savings during Q2 2025, partially offsetting negative impacts like volume deleverage.
• The company is actively deploying capital toward acquisitions, such as Micro-LAM in July 2025, suggesting a preference for investment in higher-growth platforms.

Finance: Re-evaluate the carrying value of assets within the FMT segment exposed to the energy and agriculture cycles by Friday.

IDEX Corporation (IEX) - BCG Matrix: Question Marks

You're looking at the areas of IDEX Corporation (IEX) that are demanding cash now for a future payoff, which is the classic Question Mark scenario. These are businesses in markets that are clearly expanding, but where IDEX hasn't yet secured a dominant position. The key is deciding which ones get the heavy investment needed to become Stars, and which ones we might need to cut loose.

Mott Corporation's micro-precision filtration systems, integrated into the Health & Science Technologies (HST) segment, represents a major commitment in this quadrant. IDEX Corporation paid $1 billion for Mott, with a net transaction value of approximately $900 million after accounting for expected tax benefits of about $100 million. For context, this acquisition was valued at approximately 19 times Mott's forecasted EBITDA for the full year of 2024, and a multiple in the mid-teens based on projected 2025 EBITDA. Mott was expected to generate about $200 million in revenue in 2024 with an EBITDA margin in the low 20s. Still, the integration has caused near-term dilution, with Q2 2025 adjusted EBITDA margins declining 40 basis points year-over-year, partially due to the acquisition.

The semiconductor exposure within HST is a prime example of this high-growth, uncertain-share dynamic. While the overall HST segment saw organic sales decline 1% in the first quarter of 2025, this was attributed to weak comparisons in semiconductor markets. Management is banking on a second-half recovery in semiconductor capital equipment to drive high single-digit potential for the HST segment in 2025. However, tariff-driven volatility has frozen customer decisions on larger projects, affecting businesses like Mott and Materials Science Solutions, which had strong funnels but saw paused decision-making in Q2 2025.

New energy transition applications are another area where IDEX Corporation is building share in a rapidly expanding market. The company had a total investment allocation of $5.6 million in 2024 for strategic investments in renewable energy fluid control systems. The goal was to achieve a projected market penetration of 4.2% by the end of 2024 in target segments like Solar, Wind, and Geothermal. The Fluid & Safety & Defense (FSD) segment saw growth fueled by these energy transition initiatives in Q1 2025.

Here are some key financial metrics framing the investment in these Question Mark areas:

The strategy here is clear: you need to pour capital into these units to capture market share quickly, or they risk becoming Dogs as market growth matures or if investment fails to gain traction. For instance, the HST division is projected to lead growth within the overall 2025 guidance range of 1% to 3% organic revenue growth, supported by the expected semiconductor recovery.

The cash drain is real, as evidenced by the near-term dilution from the Mott acquisition, which impacted Q1 2025 Adjusted EBITDA margin by 50 basis points. You're funding this growth with the strong cash generation from your established businesses. The company is actively managing this by executing cost initiatives totaling $80 million in full-year 2025 savings to offset these pressures.

• Mott integration is ahead of original expectations for accretion timing.
• Mott secured a $40 million multiyear contract for wastewater filtration solutions.
• Full-year 2025 adjusted EPS guidance is $8.10 to $8.45.
• Tariff impacts expected to be $60-$65 million realized in 2025, offset by pricing.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.