Generac (NYSE:GNRC) Shares Gap Up – Time to Buy?

Generac Holdings Inc. (NYSE:GNRC) shares gapped up before the market opened on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $171.10, but opened at $175.86. Generac shares last traded at $174.90, with a volume of 277,055 shares traded.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on GNRC shares. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $175.00 price objective on shares of Generac in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Janney Montgomery Scott downgraded Generac from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $126.00 to $154.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 13th. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price objective on Generac from $177.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Roth Mkm lifted their target price on Generac from $135.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Finally, Scotiabank increased their price target on Generac from $147.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $154.71.

Generac Stock Down 1.4 %

The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $149.56 and a 200 day simple moving average of $143.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 47.13, a P/E/G ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 2.25 and a quick ratio of 0.99.

Generac (NYSE:GNRC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The technology company reported $1.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by $0.15. Generac had a net margin of 6.03% and a return on equity of 15.35%. The business had revenue of $998.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.08 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Generac Holdings Inc. will post 6.5 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Generac news, CEO Aaron Jagdfeld sold 5,000 shares of Generac stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.93, for a total transaction of $794,650.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 562,177 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $89,346,790.61. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 2.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital World Investors grew its stake in Generac by 2.1% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 1,230,434 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $155,207,000 after purchasing an additional 25,646 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Generac during the 2nd quarter valued at $98,282,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Generac by 5.2% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 702,811 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $92,941,000 after purchasing an additional 35,026 shares during the period. Ninety One UK Ltd increased its stake in Generac by 0.7% in the second quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 519,741 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $68,720,000 after purchasing an additional 3,849 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blair William & Co. IL raised its holdings in shares of Generac by 29.2% during the second quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 457,475 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $60,487,000 after purchasing an additional 103,439 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.04% of the company’s stock.

Generac Company Profile

Generac Holdings Inc designs, manufactures, and distributes various energy technology products and solution worldwide. The company offers residential automatic standby generators, automatic transfer switch, air-cooled engine residential standby generators, and liquid-cooled engine generators; Mobile Link, a remote monitoring system for home standby generators; residential storage solution, which consists of a system of batteries, an inverter, photovoltaic optimizers, power electronic controls, and other components; smart home solutions, such as smart thermostats and a suite of home monitoring products.