Principal Financial Group Inc. Buys 3,426 Shares of Generac Holdings Inc. (NYSE:GNRC)

Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Generac Holdings Inc. (NYSE:GNRC) by 5.0% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 71,272 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,426 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Generac were worth $11,324,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. WoodTrust Financial Corp increased its stake in shares of Generac by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. WoodTrust Financial Corp now owns 15,400 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,447,000 after acquiring an additional 250 shares during the last quarter. Radnor Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Generac in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,088,000. Balentine LLC acquired a new stake in Generac in the third quarter worth $468,000. Greenwood Capital Associates LLC boosted its position in shares of Generac by 170.6% during the third quarter. Greenwood Capital Associates LLC now owns 4,478 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $711,000 after purchasing an additional 2,823 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Asset Management One Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Generac by 23.7% in the 3rd quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 1,147 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $182,000 after buying an additional 220 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.04% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Generac

In other news, CFO York A. Ragen sold 29,081 shares of Generac stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.73, for a total transaction of $5,372,133.13. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 135,613 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $25,051,789.49. This trade represents a 17.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Aaron Jagdfeld sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $158.93, for a total transaction of $794,650.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 562,177 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $89,346,790.61. The trade was a 0.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 42,268 shares of company stock worth $7,584,853. Insiders own 2.90% of the company’s stock.

Generac Stock Down 2.4 %

GNRC stock opened at $181.82 on Monday. Generac Holdings Inc. has a 1-year low of $108.89 and a 1-year high of $195.94. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $164.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $151.79. The company has a current ratio of 2.03, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.82 billion, a PE ratio of 37.72, a PEG ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.37.

Generac (NYSE:GNRC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The technology company reported $2.25 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.98 by $0.27. The firm had revenue of $1.17 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.16 billion. Generac had a net margin of 7.17% and a return on equity of 16.70%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.64 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Generac Holdings Inc. will post 6.8 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GNRC has been the subject of several research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Generac from $148.00 to $193.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. TD Cowen increased their target price on Generac from $172.00 to $183.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com raised Generac from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Generac from $139.00 to $156.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Generac from $128.00 to $172.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $172.21.

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.