HighTower Advisors LLC Boosts Position in Gentex Co. (NASDAQ:GNTX)

HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Gentex Co. (NASDAQ:GNTX – Get Rating) by 2.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 72,374 shares of the auto parts company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,039 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Gentex were worth $1,968,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Phoenix Wealth Advisors increased its position in Gentex by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Phoenix Wealth Advisors now owns 10,198 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $278,000 after acquiring an additional 370 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its holdings in Gentex by 0.5% during the third quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 72,087 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $1,718,000 after purchasing an additional 380 shares during the period. Formidable Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Gentex by 2.4% during the third quarter. Formidable Asset Management LLC now owns 16,002 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $381,000 after purchasing an additional 381 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Gentex by 0.3% during the third quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 144,185 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $3,445,000 after purchasing an additional 435 shares during the period. Finally, Toroso Investments LLC grew its holdings in Gentex by 2.6% during the third quarter. Toroso Investments LLC now owns 17,926 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $427,000 after purchasing an additional 462 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.80% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Gentex

In other news, CTO Neil Boehm sold 1,242 shares of Gentex stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.41, for a total value of $35,285.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 36,176 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,027,760.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Gentex news, CTO Neil Boehm sold 1,242 shares of Gentex stock in a transaction on Monday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.41, for a total transaction of $35,285.22. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer now directly owns 36,176 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,027,760.16. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director James A. Hollars sold 4,416 shares of Gentex stock in a transaction on Friday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.27, for a total value of $124,840.32. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 36,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,021,932.23. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 11,082 shares of company stock worth $311,401 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on GNTX. TheStreet raised Gentex from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a report on Friday, January 27th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on Gentex in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They set a “buy” rating for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $30.00.

Gentex Trading Down 1.8 %

Shares of Gentex stock opened at $26.60 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $27.36 and a 200 day moving average of $27.89. Gentex Co. has a 12 month low of $23.28 and a 12 month high of $31.48. The firm has a market cap of $6.22 billion, a PE ratio of 18.87, a PEG ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.92.

Gentex (NASDAQ:GNTX – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 28th. The auto parts company reported $0.42 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $550.76 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $529.59 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.37 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Gentex Co. will post 1.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Gentex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 19th. Investors of record on Friday, April 7th were paid 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 was Wednesday, April 5th. Gentex’s payout ratio is presently 34.04%.

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.