Earn income by owning businesses.

IDEX was already in our portfolio: we first bought it in April 2026 at ~$197.85, and today we're reinforcing it at $220.84 (~+12% since then) because the thesis isn't just intact — it got stronger. IDEX is a niche industrial conglomerate: instead of one famous product, it owns DOZENS of small companies that lead very specific corners of industry — precision fluid pumps, dispensers, the fluidics systems that move liquids inside medical diagnostic and lab analysis machines, and the equipment firefighters use to rescue people. Its model is that of an 'industrial compounder': it generates lots of cash and reinvests it buying more niche-leading businesses (the biggest recent one: Mott Corporation, ~$1 billion in 2024). What changed since April: it reported a better-than-expected Q1 2026 — revenue of $886.9 million (+9%), adjusted EPS of $2.00 (+14%, above the ~$1.78 expected) and record orders of $988.3 million (+13%) — and raised its full-year organic growth target from 1-2% to 3-4%. Headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois; ~9,000 employees; CEO Eric Ashleman. It DOES pay a dividend and raises it every year: ~$0.73 per quarter (16 straight years of increases), = ~1.3% a year at today's price. It trades at ~32x trailing earnings and ~25x forward — not cheap, a quality business that rarely is. 'Buy' consensus with an average target of ~$238 (~+8%). The thesis: a quiet buy-and-improve machine of small niche leaders, with high margins and a dividend that grows like clockwork.