Lazard Asset Management LLC Sells 3,540 Shares of Gentex Co. (NASDAQ:GNTX)

Lazard Asset Management LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Gentex Co. (NASDAQ:GNTX) by 17.2% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 17,098 shares of the auto parts company’s stock after selling 3,540 shares during the quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Gentex were worth $490,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Gentex by 162.4% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,249,230 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $150,810,000 after purchasing an additional 3,248,434 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Gentex in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $51,959,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Gentex by 6.1% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 18,023,056 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $517,802,000 after acquiring an additional 1,038,912 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Gentex during the fourth quarter worth $24,479,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Gentex by 66.9% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,657,397 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $47,617,000 after acquiring an additional 664,389 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 86.76% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Gentex

In other news, Director Joseph B. Anderson, Jr. sold 3,764 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.87, for a total value of $86,082.68. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 5,939 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $135,824.93. This trade represents a 38.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.45% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on GNTX. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of Gentex from $28.00 to $23.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Gentex from $29.00 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Robert W. Baird reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $25.00 price objective (down from $31.00) on shares of Gentex in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Guggenheim reduced their price target on Gentex from $30.00 to $24.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, B. Riley reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $32.50 price objective (down from $37.00) on shares of Gentex in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Gentex presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $28.31.

Gentex Stock Performance

GNTX opened at $22.16 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $22.40 and its 200 day simple moving average is $25.93. Gentex Co. has a 52-week low of $20.28 and a 52-week high of $35.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.98 billion, a PE ratio of 12.59, a PEG ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 0.85.

Gentex (NASDAQ:GNTX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 25th. The auto parts company reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.43. Gentex had a return on equity of 16.74% and a net margin of 17.49%. The firm had revenue of $576.77 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $578.68 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.47 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Gentex Co. will post 2.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Gentex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 9th were given a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 9th. Gentex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 28.07%.

Gentex 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.