Gentex Co. (NASDAQ:GNTX) Shares Sold by Sprucegrove Investment Management Ltd.

Sprucegrove Investment Management Ltd. reduced its holdings in shares of Gentex Co. (NASDAQ:GNTX) by 16.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 256,356 shares of the auto parts company’s stock after selling 52,244 shares during the quarter. Sprucegrove Investment Management Ltd. owned approximately 0.11% of Gentex worth $7,501,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Icon Advisers Inc. Co. boosted its position in shares of Gentex by 71.6% during the 1st quarter. Icon Advisers Inc. Co. now owns 58,500 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $1,640,000 after acquiring an additional 24,400 shares in the last quarter. Simplicity Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Gentex by 13.5% in the 2nd quarter. Simplicity Solutions LLC now owns 22,310 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $653,000 after purchasing an additional 2,654 shares during the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Gentex by 23.8% in the 1st quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 975,375 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $27,340,000 after purchasing an additional 187,420 shares during the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Gentex in the 1st quarter valued at about $2,448,000. Finally, Sciencast Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Gentex in the 2nd quarter valued at about $529,000. 84.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on GNTX. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Gentex from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 31st. StockNews.com began coverage on Gentex in a research note on Thursday, October 5th. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Finally, B. Riley upped their price objective on Gentex from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 31st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $33.20.

Gentex Price Performance

NASDAQ GNTX traded down $0.26 on Tuesday, hitting $30.87. 346,151 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,293,422. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $30.92 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $30.40. Gentex Co. has a fifty-two week low of $25.77 and a fifty-two week high of $34.33. The firm has a market cap of $7.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.20, a P/E/G ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 0.98.

Gentex (NASDAQ:GNTX) last released its earnings results on Friday, October 27th. The auto parts company reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.03. Gentex had a return on equity of 18.38% and a net margin of 18.04%. The company had revenue of $575.85 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $567.57 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.31 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Gentex Co. will post 1.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Gentex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 6th were given a dividend of $0.12 per share. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 5th. Gentex’s payout ratio is 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, 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.