Private Advisor Group LLC Increases Position in Gentex Co. (NASDAQ:GNTX)

Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Gentex Co. (NASDAQ:GNTX) by 46.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 28,939 shares of the auto parts company’s stock after buying an additional 9,171 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC’s holdings in Gentex were worth $976,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. National Bank of Canada FI raised its stake in Gentex by 159.1% during the fourth quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 930 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 571 shares during the period. Financial Advocates Investment Management raised its stake in Gentex by 22.2% during the fourth quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management now owns 7,900 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $258,000 after purchasing an additional 1,436 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. raised its stake in Gentex by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 1,044,201 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $34,104,000 after purchasing an additional 19,851 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Gentex during the fourth quarter worth approximately $89,843,000. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its stake in Gentex by 129.7% during the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 111,827 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $3,652,000 after purchasing an additional 63,152 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.76% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GNTX has been the topic of a number of research reports. B. Riley cut their target price on shares of Gentex from $44.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 29th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Gentex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Gentex from $36.00 to $35.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of Gentex from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Finally, BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Gentex from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $34.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.86.

Gentex Trading Down 1.3 %

GNTX opened at $28.82 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $31.00 and a 200 day simple moving average of $33.51. The firm has a market cap of $6.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.25, a PEG ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 0.92. Gentex Co. has a twelve month low of $27.86 and a twelve month high of $37.58.

Gentex (NASDAQ:GNTX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, July 26th. The auto parts company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by ($0.15). The firm had revenue of $572.93 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $623.28 million. Gentex had a net margin of 17.87% and a return on equity of 17.78%. On average, analysts forecast that Gentex Co. will post 1.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Gentex Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 9th. Gentex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.40%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, major shareholder Corp Gentex acquired 3,152,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 23rd. The stock was bought at an average cost of $5.00 per share, with a total value of $15,762,500.00. Following the acquisition, the insider now directly owns 6,463,808 shares in the company, valued at $32,319,040. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.41% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Gentex

Gentex Corporation designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and supplies digital vision, connected car, dimmable glass, and fire protection products in the United States, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Republic of Korea, and internationally. It operates through Automotive Products and Other segments. The company offers automotive products, including interior and exterior electrochromic automatic-dimming rearview mirrors, automotive electronics, and non-automatic-dimming rearview mirrors for automotive passenger cars, light trucks, pick-up trucks, sport utility vehicles, and vans for original equipment manufacturers, automotive suppliers, and various aftermarket and accessory customers.