Gentex Corporation (NASDAQ:GNTX) received an inaugural GM Innovation award

Gentex Corporation (NASDAQ:GNTX) received an inaugural GM Innovation award during General Motors’ 24^th annual Supplier of the Year awards ceremony held Thursday, March 10, at Cobo Center in Detroit. Gentex was also named a 2015 GM Supplier of the Year, an honor it has now received 17 times.

Gentex is a leading supplier of vision-enhancing technologies to the global automotive industry and a long-time supplier to General Motors.

GM debuted the Innovation award to recognize five suppliers among thousands globally that brought new innovations to the company that benefit its customers. Specifically, Gentex was named one of the inaugural Innovation award winners for its all-new Full Display Mirror™ (FDM™), an intelligent rear vision system that uses a rearward-facing camera and mirror-integrated video display to optimize a vehicle’s rearward view.

“We’re incredibly honored to receive one of the first-ever GM Innovation awards,” said Gentex Senior Vice President and CFO Steve Downing. “Our FDM is the first commercially viable, NHTSA-approved display mirror. It’s quickly becoming the industry benchmark for enhanced rear vision, and we’re proud to have worked with GM to bring it to market.”

During the event, Gentex was also named a 2015 GM Supplier of the Year. GM recognized 110 of its best suppliers from 17 countries that have consistently exceeded GM’s expectations, created outstanding value, or introduced new innovations to the company.

GM recognized the most suppliers since debuting the Supplier of the Year event in 1992, representing a nearly 40 percent increase compared to 79 recipients in 2014. More than half are repeat Supplier of the Year winners from 2014. Gentex is among this group, and in addition to winning in 2014, has won a total of 17 times out of the program’s 24-year history.
“We are focused on building positive supplier relationships, bringing new, customer-centric innovations to GM, and being the OEM of choice among suppliers,” said Steve Kiefer, GM vice president, Global Purchasing and Supply Chain. “The companies we recognize tonight not only have brought innovation, they delivered it with the quality our customers deserve.”

Gentex Equity Analysis

Gentex Corporation (NASDAQ:GNTX) opened trading today as $15.69 and is trading in the range of 15.68-15.90 today. Gentex’s current market cap stands at $4.53 billion.

Compared to other peers in the Auto Parts sector, Gentex has outperformed in terms of quarterly revenue growth year over year at 0.16 vs. the industry average of 0.07. Gentex’s earnings per share is currently at 1.08, which equals the sector average of 1.08.

Gentex is currently covered by 9 Wall Street analysts. The mean target price is $16.21 according to First Call. This presents a solid upside to the current price of the equity. The Mean Recommendation sits at 2.4 which is based on 3 Strong Buy, 2 Buy and 2 Hold ratings.

The most recent analyst actions consisted of Robert W. Baird downgrading the stock on January 27^th

The current quarter EPS consensus estimate is .28 with revenue estimates of 405.23M. Sales are expected to grow at a 9.80% rate. Gentex reported actual earnings last quarter of 0.30 which beat the .27 consensus estimate, a 11.10% surprise.

Corporate Profile

Gentex Corporation designs and manufactures automatic-dimming rearview mirrors and electronics for the automotive industry, dimmable aircraft windows for the aviation industry, and commercial smoke alarms and signaling devices for the fire protection industry. The Company’s business involves designing, developing, manufacturing and marketing interior and exterior auto-dimming automotive rearview mirrors that utilize electrochromic technology to dim in proportion to the amount of headlight glare from trailing vehicle headlamps.