Smith Group Asset Management LLC Takes $440,000 Position in Generac Holdings Inc. (NYSE:GNRC)

Smith Group Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Generac Holdings Inc. (NYSE:GNRC) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 2,840 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $440,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GNRC. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its stake in shares of Generac by 114.8% during the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 559,816 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $88,944,000 after acquiring an additional 299,205 shares during the last quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN raised its position in Generac by 5.6% during the 3rd quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 385,584 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $61,262,000 after purchasing an additional 20,576 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC purchased a new stake in Generac in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $45,722,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Generac by 25,311.7% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 267,077 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $42,433,000 after buying an additional 266,026 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stephens Investment Management Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Generac by 678.5% during the third quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC now owns 192,349 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $30,560,000 after buying an additional 167,641 shares during the period. 84.04% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GNRC has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com raised Generac from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Generac from $148.00 to $193.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays assumed coverage on shares of Generac in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $189.00 price target on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Generac from $185.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Generac from $160.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $174.30.

Generac Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of GNRC stock opened at $148.01 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $8.81 billion, a PE ratio of 30.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a current ratio of 2.03 and a quick ratio of 0.96. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $166.18 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $161.49. Generac Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $108.89 and a 1 year high of $195.94.

Generac (NYSE:GNRC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The technology company reported $2.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.98 by $0.27. Generac had a net margin of 7.17% and a return on equity of 16.70%. The business had revenue of $1.17 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.16 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.64 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Generac Holdings Inc. will post 6.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Generac news, CEO Aaron Jagdfeld sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $166.60, for a total value of $833,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 557,177 shares in the company, valued at $92,825,688.20. This represents a 0.89 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO York A. Ragen sold 29,081 shares of Generac stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $184.73, for a total transaction of $5,372,133.13. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 135,613 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,051,789.49. This represents a 17.66 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 42,268 shares of company stock valued at $7,577,703. Insiders own 2.90% of the company’s stock.

Generac Company 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.