IDEX Corporation (IEX)

IDEX makes highly specialised pumps and dispensers — from feeding reagent in an analyser to firefighting equipment.

The portfolio is deliberately fragmented: dozens of products in markets too small for a large competitor. A part is usually embedded in someone else's machine — a medical analyser, a food line, a laboratory instrument — and replacing it means redesigning the customer's product.

Hence high and durable profitability: price is set not by tender but by the absence of an alternative. Growth comes from buying similar niche manufacturers and raising their efficiency. Risks: the industrial cycle, acquisition prices when competition for them is fierce, and demand from medical equipment makers. The dividend has been raised for many consecutive years.