Argent Trust Co Purchases 316 Shares of Genuine Parts (NYSE:GPC)

Argent Trust Co grew its holdings in shares of Genuine Parts (NYSE:GPC) by 6.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 5,498 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after acquiring an additional 316 shares during the quarter. Argent Trust Co’s holdings in Genuine Parts were worth $642,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in GPC. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Genuine Parts by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,362,748 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $391,604,000 after purchasing an additional 65,783 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Genuine Parts by 18.9% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,262,229 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $380,898,000 after acquiring an additional 518,851 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Genuine Parts by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,889,930 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $337,428,000 after purchasing an additional 145,960 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Genuine Parts by 6.6% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,840,807 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $257,124,000 after purchasing an additional 114,180 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Genuine Parts in the 4th quarter worth approximately $206,645,000. Institutional investors own 78.83% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on GPC. Loop Capital initiated coverage on Genuine Parts in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $155.00 target price on the stock. Northcoast Research cut shares of Genuine Parts from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Evercore ISI raised shares of Genuine Parts from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $128.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Truist Financial upped their price objective on Genuine Parts from $129.00 to $133.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “sell” rating and issued a $114.00 target price (down previously from $133.00) on shares of Genuine Parts in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $135.88.

Genuine Parts Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE GPC opened at $115.13 on Friday. Genuine Parts has a 12-month low of $104.01 and a 12-month high of $164.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.79 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.16, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $120.28 and a 200 day moving average of $122.22.

Genuine Parts (NYSE:GPC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The specialty retailer reported $1.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.07. Genuine Parts had a return on equity of 25.28% and a net margin of 3.85%. The business had revenue of $5.77 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.71 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.26 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Genuine Parts will post 7.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Genuine Parts Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a $1.03 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This is a boost from Genuine Parts’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. This represents a $4.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.58%. Genuine Parts’s dividend payout ratio is 63.68%.

Genuine Parts Profile

Genuine Parts Company distributes automotive replacement parts, and industrial parts and materials. It operates in two segments: Automotive Parts Group and Industrial Parts Group segments. The company distributes automotive replacement parts for hybrid and electric vehicles, trucks, SUVs, buses, motorcycles, recreational vehicles, farm vehicles, small engines, farm equipment, marine equipment, and heavy duty equipment; and equipment and parts used by repair shops, service stations, fleet operators, automobile and truck dealers, leasing companies, bus and truck lines, mass merchandisers, farms, and individuals.