Mufg Securities Americas Inc. Acquires Shares of 2,053 Genuine Parts (NYSE:GPC)

Mufg Securities Americas Inc. bought a new position in shares of Genuine Parts (NYSE:GPC - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 2,053 shares of the specialty retailer's stock, valued at approximately $240,000.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Genuine Parts by 2.0% during the 4th 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. increased its position in shares of Genuine Parts by 18.9% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,262,229 shares of the specialty retailer's stock valued at $380,898,000 after buying an additional 518,851 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Genuine Parts by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,889,930 shares of the specialty retailer's stock valued at $337,428,000 after buying an additional 145,960 shares during the period. Stifel Financial Corp increased its position in shares of Genuine Parts by 21.6% in the fourth quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 2,502,852 shares of the specialty retailer's stock worth $292,233,000 after purchasing an additional 445,259 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of Genuine Parts by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 2,136,214 shares of the specialty retailer's stock valued at $249,426,000 after buying an additional 104,343 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.83% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on GPC. Truist Financial increased their price objective on Genuine Parts from $133.00 to $137.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on Genuine Parts from $135.00 to $130.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "sell" rating and set a $114.00 price objective (down previously from $133.00) on shares of Genuine Parts in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. StockNews.com lowered Genuine Parts from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, April 26th. Finally, Argus raised Genuine Parts to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $130.86.

Genuine Parts Price Performance

Shares of GPC traded down $1.00 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $128.09. 1,062,009 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,277,368. The company has a market cap of $17.78 billion, a PE ratio of 19.80 and a beta of 0.76. Genuine Parts has a 52-week low of $104.01 and a 52-week high of $152.12. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $117.96 and a two-hundred day moving average of $119.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a current ratio of 1.16.

Genuine Parts (NYSE:GPC - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 22nd. The specialty retailer reported $1.75 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.66 by $0.09. Genuine Parts had a return on equity of 25.28% and a net margin of 3.85%. The company had revenue of $5.87 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.83 billion. On average, equities analysts predict that Genuine Parts will post 7.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Genuine Parts Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 6th will be paid a $1.03 dividend. This represents a $4.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 6th. Genuine Parts's payout ratio is 67.65%.

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.