VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Acquires Shares of 147,000 Gentex Corporation $GNTX

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new position in shares of Gentex Corporation (NASDAQ:GNTX) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 147,000 shares of the auto parts company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,715,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Clearstead Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Gentex by 21.4% in the 4th quarter. Clearstead Advisors LLC now owns 2,479 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $58,000 after purchasing an additional 437 shares during the last quarter. Gagnon Securities LLC grew its stake in Gentex by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Gagnon Securities LLC now owns 55,672 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $1,295,000 after buying an additional 458 shares during the last quarter. Crumly & Associates Inc. increased its position in Gentex by 3.7% during the second quarter. Crumly & Associates Inc. now owns 13,291 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $336,000 after buying an additional 478 shares during the period. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. increased its position in Gentex by 1.6% during the first quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. now owns 30,294 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $662,000 after buying an additional 487 shares during the period. Finally, Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in Gentex by 0.3% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 196,776 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $4,300,000 after buying an additional 521 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.76% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on GNTX. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $25.00 price objective (down from $26.00) on shares of Gentex in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Freedom Capital lowered shares of Gentex from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Gentex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, July 12th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Gentex from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Gentex from $28.00 to $27.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $26.80.

Gentex Price Performance

Gentex stock opened at $22.66 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $23.64 and a 200-day simple moving average of $23.37. Gentex Corporation has a 12 month low of $20.48 and a 12 month high of $29.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.83 billion, a PE ratio of 11.99 and a beta of 0.80.

Gentex (NASDAQ:GNTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 24th. The auto parts company reported $0.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $651.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $669.65 million. Gentex had a net margin of 15.50% and a return on equity of 16.78%. Gentex’s quarterly revenue was down 1.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.43 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Gentex Corporation will post 2.07 EPS for the current year.

Gentex Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 21st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 7th will be issued a $0.12 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 7th. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. Gentex’s payout ratio is presently 25.40%.

Gentex Profile

Gentex Corporation (NASDAQ: GNTX) is a global technology company specializing in the design and manufacture of automotive and aerospace products. The company’s primary business centers on automatic-dimming rearview mirrors, advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), and camera-based driver monitoring technologies. In the automotive sector, Gentex supplies exterior and interior mirrors with integrated electronics, connectivity features, and safety capabilities to many of the world’s leading original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).