Country Trust Bank Buys 26,080 Shares of Gentex Co. (NASDAQ:GNTX)

Country Trust Bank lifted its position in Gentex Co. (NASDAQ:GNTX) by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 904,867 shares of the auto parts company’s stock after purchasing an additional 26,080 shares during the quarter. Country Trust Bank owned about 0.39% of Gentex worth $26,866,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its position 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 valued at $3,652,000 after purchasing an additional 63,152 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Gentex by 41.2% in the 1st quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 4,677,655 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $168,957,000 after acquiring an additional 1,363,898 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Gentex by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,280,716 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $727,688,000 after acquiring an additional 163,373 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its stake in Gentex by 91.0% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 127,876 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $4,619,000 after acquiring an additional 60,934 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its position in Gentex by 15.7% during the first quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 411,535 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $14,865,000 after purchasing an additional 55,748 shares during the period. 86.76% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GNTX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on Gentex from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Gentex from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $34.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. B. Riley reduced 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. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Gentex in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $34.00 price target for the company. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Gentex from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.29.

Gentex Price Performance

GNTX stock opened at $28.68 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $6.63 billion, a PE ratio of 15.17, a P/E/G ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 0.92. Gentex Co. has a 12 month low of $27.86 and a 12 month high of $37.58. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $29.91 and its 200 day moving average is $32.81.

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

Gentex Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Gentex

In other Gentex news, major shareholder Corp Gentex bought 3,152,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 23rd. The shares were acquired at an average price of $5.00 per share, with a total value of $15,762,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 6,463,808 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,319,040. This trade represents a 0.00 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.41% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Gentex Profile

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.