Vanguard Group Inc. Sells 113,471 Shares of Gentex Co. (NASDAQ:GNTX)

Vanguard Group Inc. trimmed its stake in Gentex Co. (NASDAQ:GNTX) by 0.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 21,695,153 shares of the auto parts company’s stock after selling 113,471 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 0.10% of Gentex worth $623,302,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GNTX. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Gentex by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,554,823 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $46,163,000 after buying an additional 6,106 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in shares of Gentex by 26.2% in the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 51,393 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $1,526,000 after acquiring an additional 10,658 shares during the period. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Gentex by 42.7% in the 3rd quarter. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. now owns 14,779 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $439,000 after acquiring an additional 4,424 shares during the last quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Gentex during the 3rd quarter worth about $366,000. Finally, Kestra Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Gentex by 8.3% during the 3rd quarter. Kestra Investment Management LLC now owns 43,568 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $1,294,000 after purchasing an additional 3,353 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on GNTX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Gentex from $34.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Guggenheim set a $30.00 price target on Gentex in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. B. Riley restated a “buy” rating and set a $32.50 price objective (down previously from $37.00) on shares of Gentex in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Robert W. Baird set a $31.00 target price on Gentex in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Gentex from $30.00 to $29.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $31.81.

Gentex Trading Down 2.0 %

Shares of GNTX stock opened at $23.40 on Monday. Gentex Co. has a twelve month low of $23.27 and a twelve month high of $36.46. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $25.20 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $28.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.30, a P/E/G ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 0.90.

Gentex (NASDAQ:GNTX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 31st. The auto parts company reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by ($0.10). Gentex had a return on equity of 16.74% and a net margin of 17.49%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.50 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Gentex Co. will post 2.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Gentex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.12 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 9th. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.05%. Gentex’s dividend payout ratio is presently 27.27%.

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.