HighTower Advisors LLC Has $1.97 Million Stock Position in Gentex Co. (NASDAQ:GNTX)

HighTower Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Gentex Co. (NASDAQ:GNTX – Get Rating) by 2.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 72,374 shares of the auto parts company’s stock after buying an additional 2,039 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Gentex were worth $1,968,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Gentex by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,483,145 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $559,838,000 after purchasing an additional 93,928 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in shares of Gentex by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 20,990,163 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $612,282,000 after acquiring an additional 190,797 shares during the last quarter. Ariel Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Gentex by 92.4% in the 1st quarter. Ariel Investments LLC now owns 8,174,011 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $238,436,000 after acquiring an additional 3,925,355 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Gentex by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,592,791 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $157,172,000 after acquiring an additional 238,753 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cooke & Bieler LP increased its stake in shares of Gentex by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 5,570,675 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $151,912,000 after acquiring an additional 82,690 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.80% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GNTX has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Gentex in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. TheStreet raised Gentex from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a research note on Friday, January 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Gentex currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $30.00.

Gentex Stock Performance

NASDAQ GNTX opened at $26.60 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $27.36 and a 200 day simple moving average of $27.89. Gentex Co. has a 52-week low of $23.28 and a 52-week high of $31.48. The stock has a market cap of $6.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.87, a PEG ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.92.

Gentex (NASDAQ:GNTX – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Friday, April 28th. The auto parts company reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.04. Gentex had a return on equity of 16.02% and a net margin of 16.43%. The business had revenue of $550.76 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $529.59 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.37 EPS. Gentex’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Gentex Co. will post 1.66 EPS for the current year.

Gentex Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 7th were given a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 5th. Gentex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 34.04%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Gentex news, Director James A. Hollars sold 4,416 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.27, for a total transaction of $124,840.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 36,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,021,932.23. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Gentex news, Director James A. Hollars sold 4,416 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.27, for a total transaction of $124,840.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 36,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,021,932.23. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Richard O. Schaum sold 5,424 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.89, for a total value of $151,275.36. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 49,861 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,390,623.29. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 11,082 shares of company stock valued at $311,401 in the last quarter. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Gentex

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Gentex Corp. is a technology company, which engages in the design, development, and manufacture and supply of digital vision, connected car, dimmable glass, and fire protection products. It operates through the Automotive Products and Other segments. The Automotive Products segment operates in virtually all the foregoing facilities.