Stevens Capital Management LP Acquires New Position in Generac Holdings Inc. (NYSE:GNRC)

Stevens Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in Generac Holdings Inc. (NYSE:GNRC) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 7,090 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $916,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Ariel Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of Generac by 14.9% in the 3rd quarter. Ariel Investments LLC now owns 2,010,344 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $219,047,000 after purchasing an additional 261,050 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Generac by 9.9% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,633,226 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $177,956,000 after buying an additional 147,523 shares during the period. Impax Asset Management Group plc increased its stake in shares of Generac by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 1,172,742 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $127,151,000 after acquiring an additional 37,846 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in Generac by 9.0% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 673,384 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $73,372,000 after acquiring an additional 55,812 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Generac by 42.6% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 650,139 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $70,839,000 after buying an additional 194,265 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.04% of the company’s stock.

Generac Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of Generac stock traded up $1.67 during trading on Thursday, hitting $138.85. 1,481,608 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,047,514. The stock has a market cap of $8.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.45. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $121.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $116.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 2.27 and a quick ratio of 0.94. Generac Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $79.86 and a 12-month high of $156.95.

Generac (NYSE:GNRC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The technology company reported $2.07 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.09 by ($0.02). Generac had a net margin of 5.33% and a return on equity of 14.15%. The business had revenue of $1.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.78 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Generac Holdings Inc. will post 6.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Aaron Jagdfeld sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.94, for a total transaction of $634,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 592,177 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $75,170,948.38. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 2.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on GNRC shares. Roth Mkm raised their price target on shares of Generac from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Canaccord Genuity Group increased their price objective on shares of Generac from $140.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. OTR Global raised Generac from a “mixed” rating to a “positive” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Guggenheim downgraded Generac from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on Generac from $124.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, February 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $141.65.

Generac Profile

Generac Holdings Inc designs, manufactures, and distributes various energy technology products and solution worldwide. The company offers residential automatic standby generators, automatic transfer switch, air-cooled engine residential standby generators, and liquid-cooled engine generators; Mobile Link, a remote monitoring system for home standby generators; residential storage solution, which consists of a system of batteries, an inverter, photovoltaic optimizers, power electronic controls, and other components; smart home solutions, such as smart thermostats and a suite of home monitoring products.