The Goldman Sachs Group Lowers Generac (NYSE:GNRC) Price Target to $168.00

Generac (NYSE:GNRC - Free Report) had its price objective reduced by The Goldman Sachs Group from $193.00 to $168.00 in a research report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the technology company's stock.

GNRC has been the topic of several other reports. Barclays initiated coverage on Generac in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. They set an "equal weight" rating and a $189.00 price target on the stock. Roth Mkm boosted their price target on Generac from $160.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Citigroup lowered their price target on Generac from $172.00 to $162.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Generac from $175.00 to $165.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Finally, StockNews.com raised Generac from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Generac presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $174.00.

Generac Stock Performance

Shares of Generac stock traded down $0.03 during trading on Thursday, reaching $146.80. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,028,876 shares, compared to its average volume of 743,531. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 2.03. The business's fifty day moving average price is $156.31 and its 200-day moving average price is $160.61. The firm has a market cap of $8.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.42. Generac has a one year low of $108.89 and a one year high of $195.94.

Generac (NYSE:GNRC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The technology company reported $2.80 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.49 by $0.31. Generac had a return on equity of 16.70% and a net margin of 7.17%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Generac 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 on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $145.15, for a total transaction of $725,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 565,825 shares in the company, valued at approximately $82,129,498.75. The trade was a 0.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 2.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Generac

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GNRC. Raymond James Trust N.A. increased its position in shares of Generac by 52.8% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 3,407 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $541,000 after buying an additional 1,177 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB bought a new stake in shares of Generac in the 4th quarter valued at $5,229,000. Global Financial Private Client LLC bought a new stake in shares of Generac in the 4th quarter valued at $614,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Generac by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 71,272 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $11,324,000 after buying an additional 3,426 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in shares of Generac by 106.1% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 28,772 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $4,998,000 after buying an additional 14,811 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.04% of the company's stock.

About Generac

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.