BNP Paribas Financial Markets Purchases 232,237 Shares of Gen Digital Inc. $GEN

BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its holdings in Gen Digital Inc. (NASDAQ:GEN) by 24.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,173,575 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 232,237 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets’ holdings in Gen Digital were worth $31,910,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in shares of Gen Digital by 46.8% during the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 6,600,836 shares of the company’s stock worth $187,398,000 after purchasing an additional 2,103,335 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in Gen Digital by 6.7% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 22,473,917 shares of the company’s stock valued at $660,730,000 after buying an additional 1,406,869 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Gen Digital during the fourth quarter valued at about $31,991,000. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd increased its holdings in Gen Digital by 72.8% during the third quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 2,786,250 shares of the company’s stock worth $79,102,000 after buying an additional 1,174,048 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Gen Digital by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 73,310,110 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,993,302,000 after acquiring an additional 1,096,313 shares during the period. 81.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on GEN. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Gen Digital from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Gen Digital from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded Gen Digital from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on Gen Digital from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Gen Digital from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Gen Digital has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $31.29.

Gen Digital Trading Up 0.1%

NASDAQ:GEN opened at $26.52 on Friday. Gen Digital Inc. has a 1 year low of $17.78 and a 1 year high of $32.22. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $21.38 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $23.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.07, a current ratio of 0.40 and a quick ratio of 0.40. The company has a market cap of $15.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.78 and a beta of 1.21.

Gen Digital (NASDAQ:GEN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.02. Gen Digital had a return on equity of 55.47% and a net margin of 19.46%.The company had revenue of $1.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.25 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.59 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 27.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Gen Digital has set its Q1 2027 guidance at 0.680-0.700 EPS and its FY 2027 guidance at 2.850-2.950 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Gen Digital Inc. will post 2.59 EPS for the current year.

Gen Digital Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 10th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.125 per share. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 18th. Gen Digital’s payout ratio is presently 31.65%.

Gen Digital Profile

Gen Digital (NASDAQ: GEN) is a global cybersecurity company specializing in consumer- and small-business-focused security, privacy, and identity protection solutions. The company offers a suite of products designed to safeguard devices, networks, and personal information against malware, ransomware, phishing attacks and other digital threats. With a focus on user-friendly interfaces and cross-platform compatibility, Gen Digital develops antivirus software, VPN services, parental controls, password management tools, and comprehensive identity-theft monitoring services.

Gen Digital traces its origins to the consumer software division of Symantec Corporation, which was spun off in late 2019 under the NortonLifeLock name.