Arizona State Retirement System Sells 1,581 Shares of Gentex Corporation (NASDAQ:GNTX)

Arizona State Retirement System trimmed its holdings in Gentex Corporation (NASDAQ:GNTX) by 2.4% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 65,211 shares of the auto parts company’s stock after selling 1,581 shares during the quarter. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Gentex were worth $1,519,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GNTX. TD Private Client Wealth LLC grew its position in Gentex by 138.8% in the fourth quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 1,139 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 662 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC grew its position in Gentex by 208.2% in the first quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,618 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 1,093 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in Gentex by 103.3% in the first quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 2,124 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 1,079 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. grew its position in Gentex by 268,600.0% in the first quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 2,687 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $62,000 after acquiring an additional 2,686 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LRI Investments LLC grew its position in Gentex by 33.2% in the fourth quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 2,750 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $79,000 after acquiring an additional 686 shares in the last quarter. 86.76% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Joseph B. Anderson, Jr. sold 3,764 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.87, for a total transaction of $86,082.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 5,939 shares in the company, valued at $135,824.93. This represents a 38.79% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.45% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on GNTX. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Gentex in a research report on Friday, July 11th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Gentex from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 11th. Industrial Alliance Securities set a $25.00 price objective on shares of Gentex in a report on Friday, July 11th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $23.00 price objective (up from $21.00) on shares of Gentex in a report on Monday, July 14th. Finally, Baird R W downgraded shares of Gentex from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $28.28.

Gentex Price Performance

NASDAQ:GNTX opened at $22.94 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $5.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.42, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 0.81. Gentex Corporation has a one year low of $20.28 and a one year high of $34.41. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $22.24 and a 200 day moving average price of $23.64.

Gentex (NASDAQ:GNTX) last released its earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The auto parts company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.43. The firm had revenue of $576.77 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $578.68 million. Gentex had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 16.11%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.47 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Gentex Corporation will post 2.04 EPS for the current year.

Gentex declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, July 16th that allows the company to repurchase 40,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization allows the auto parts company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Gentex Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 9th. Gentex’s payout ratio is currently 28.07%.

Gentex Company 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.