Standard Motor Products (NYSE:SMP) Rating Lowered to Hold at Zacks Research

Standard Motor Products (NYSE:SMP) was downgraded by Zacks Research from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities analysts also recently weighed in on SMP. Wall Street Zen downgraded Standard Motor Products from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 7th. Weiss Ratings raised Standard Motor Products from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Standard Motor Products currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.00.

Standard Motor Products Price Performance

Shares of NYSE SMP opened at $38.34 on Tuesday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $37.04 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $38.54. The company has a market cap of $853.43 million, a PE ratio of 18.79 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 2.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86. Standard Motor Products has a twelve month low of $28.08 and a twelve month high of $46.00.

Standard Motor Products (NYSE:SMP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The auto parts company reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.73 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $451.17 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $429.07 million. Standard Motor Products had a return on equity of 12.98% and a net margin of 2.51%. On average, analysts predict that Standard Motor Products will post 4.4 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Standard Motor Products

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Standard Motor Products by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,386,382 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $51,089,000 after purchasing an additional 4,927 shares during the last quarter. Royce & Associates LP grew its position in shares of Standard Motor Products by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 1,101,199 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $40,579,000 after purchasing an additional 36,688 shares during the last quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL grew its position in shares of Standard Motor Products by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 980,264 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $36,123,000 after purchasing an additional 39,710 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Standard Motor Products by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 826,471 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $30,455,000 after purchasing an additional 5,319 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Standard Motor Products by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 503,039 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $18,539,000 after purchasing an additional 1,268 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.26% of the company’s stock.

Standard Motor Products Company Profile

Standard Motor Products, Inc, headquartered in Long Island City, New York, is a leading manufacturer and distributor of aftermarket and original equipment automotive parts. Since its founding in 1919, the company has focused on engineering, testing, and supplying ignition and temperature management products for passenger cars and light trucks. Its product lineup includes ignition coils, spark plug wires, sensors, switches, heating and air conditioning controls, and related electronic components.

The company operates through two primary segments: Engine Management and Temperature Control.