Gentex Co. (NASDAQ:GNTX) Sees Significant Decrease in Short Interest

Gentex Co. (NASDAQ:GNTX) saw a significant decrease in short interest during the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,940,000 shares, a decrease of 6.2% from the March 31st total of 4,200,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,440,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.7 days. Approximately 1.7% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Insider Buying and Selling at Gentex

In other Gentex news, CFO Kevin C. Nash sold 13,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.04, for a total value of $446,040.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 44,321 shares in the company, valued at $1,464,365.84. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.41% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Gentex

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its holdings in Gentex by 15.7% in the first quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 411,535 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $14,865,000 after acquiring an additional 55,748 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its holdings in Gentex by 3.7% in the first quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 19,768 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $714,000 after acquiring an additional 704 shares during the period. JLB & Associates Inc. lifted its holdings in Gentex by 1.7% in the first quarter. JLB & Associates Inc. now owns 24,381 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $881,000 after acquiring an additional 416 shares during the period. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lifted its holdings in Gentex by 351.9% in the first quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 225,136 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $8,132,000 after acquiring an additional 175,313 shares during the period. Finally, Greenleaf Trust raised its stake in shares of Gentex by 61.7% during the 1st quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 15,309 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $553,000 after buying an additional 5,843 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.76% of the company’s stock.

Gentex Price Performance

NASDAQ:GNTX opened at $33.96 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $35.63 and its 200 day moving average price is $33.15. Gentex has a 1-year low of $25.86 and a 1-year high of $37.58. The firm has a market cap of $7.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 0.99.

Gentex (NASDAQ:GNTX) last released its earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The auto parts company reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by ($0.01). Gentex had a net margin of 18.77% and a return on equity of 19.19%. The business had revenue of $590.23 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $600.38 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.42 EPS. Gentex’s revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Gentex will post 2.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Gentex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th were issued a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 4th. Gentex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 25.40%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GNTX has been the topic of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Gentex from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. B. Riley raised their target price on shares of Gentex from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Gentex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday. Guggenheim lifted their price objective on shares of Gentex from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Gentex from $31.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Gentex has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $37.83.

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, 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.