Artisan Partners Limited Partnership Takes $20.98 Million Position in Generac Holdings Inc. (NYSE:GNRC)

Artisan Partners Limited Partnership bought a new stake in shares of Generac Holdings Inc. (NYSE:GNRC) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund bought 140,667 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,978,000.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Fairfield Bush & CO. raised its stake in shares of Generac by 83.2% in the first quarter. Fairfield Bush & CO. now owns 7,102 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,111,000 after acquiring an additional 3,225 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS raised its stake in shares of Generac by 6.6% in the first quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 8,442 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,509,000 after acquiring an additional 523 shares during the last quarter. Prudential PLC bought a new position in shares of Generac in the first quarter worth about $441,000. National Pension Service raised its stake in shares of Generac by 12.8% in the first quarter. National Pension Service now owns 98,555 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,296,000 after acquiring an additional 11,158 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Generac by 2.0% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,770,488 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,012,595,000 after acquiring an additional 130,854 shares during the last quarter. 87.59% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GNRC has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America raised shares of Generac from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $76.00 to $110.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and set a $175.00 price objective on shares of Generac in a report on Thursday, September 28th. Guggenheim upgraded shares of Generac from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $142.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, November 3rd. Scotiabank cut their price objective on shares of Generac from $165.00 to $135.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 22nd. Finally, Roth Mkm dropped their price target on shares of Generac from $116.00 to $105.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $139.82.

Insider Activity at Generac

In other Generac news, CEO Aaron Jagdfeld sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.23, for a total transaction of $601,150.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 602,690 shares in the company, valued at approximately $72,461,418.70. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Generac news, EVP Rajendra Kumar Kanuru sold 250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.24, for a total transaction of $27,060.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 15,868 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,717,552.32. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Aaron Jagdfeld sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.23, for a total transaction of $601,150.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 602,690 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $72,461,418.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 15,500 shares of company stock worth $1,675,768 in the last quarter. 2.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Generac Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE GNRC opened at $114.12 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $102.46 and a 200 day simple moving average of $116.66. The firm has a market cap of $7.01 billion, a PE ratio of 44.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.31. Generac Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $79.86 and a 1 year high of $156.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 2.41 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

Generac (NYSE:GNRC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 1st. The technology company reported $1.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.55 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $1.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. Generac had a net margin of 4.72% and a return on equity of 13.73%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.75 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Generac Holdings Inc. will post 5.35 EPS for the current year.

Generac Profile

Generac Holdings Inc designs, manufactures, and sells power generation equipment, energy storage systems, energy management devices and solutions, and other power products for the residential, light commercial, and industrial markets worldwide. The company offers residential automatic standby generators, automatic transfer switch, air-cooled engine residential standby generators, and liquid-cooled engine generators; residential storage solution consists of a system of batteries, an inverter, photovoltaic optimizers, power electronic controls, and other components; Mobile Link, a remote monitoring system for home standby generators; smart home solutions, such as smart thermostats and a suite of home monitoring products; smart water heater controllers; residential clean energy solutions; and portable and inverter generators; outdoor power equipment, including trimmers, field and brush mowers, log splitters, stump grinders, chipper shredders, lawn and leaf vacuums, and pressure washers and water pumps; and battery-powered turf care products.