Royce & Associates LP Purchases 36,688 Shares of Standard Motor Products, Inc. $SMP

Royce & Associates LP grew its position in Standard Motor Products, Inc. (NYSE:SMP) by 3.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,101,199 shares of the auto parts company’s stock after acquiring an additional 36,688 shares during the period. Royce & Associates LP owned 5.01% of Standard Motor Products worth $40,579,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL raised its stake in shares of Standard Motor Products by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 980,264 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $36,123,000 after acquiring an additional 39,710 shares during the last quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC raised its stake in shares of Standard Motor Products by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 439,630 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $16,200,000 after acquiring an additional 1,620 shares during the last quarter. Pacific Ridge Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Standard Motor Products by 4.7% in the fourth quarter. Pacific Ridge Capital Partners LLC now owns 14,794 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $545,000 after acquiring an additional 660 shares during the last quarter. Strs Ohio bought a new position in shares of Standard Motor Products in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $280,000. Finally, Horizon Investments LLC raised its position in Standard Motor Products by 11.8% in the 4th quarter. Horizon Investments LLC now owns 16,148 shares of the auto parts company’s stock worth $595,000 after purchasing an additional 1,705 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.26% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SMP has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Standard Motor Products from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Standard Motor Products from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 7th. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of Standard Motor Products from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $49.00.

Standard Motor Products Stock Performance

SMP stock opened at $37.87 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 2.23 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $37.05 and a 200 day moving average price of $38.46. Standard Motor Products, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $28.08 and a fifty-two week high of $46.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $843.03 million, a PE ratio of 18.56 and a beta of 0.80.

Standard Motor Products (NYSE:SMP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The auto parts company reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.73 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $451.17 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $429.07 million. Standard Motor Products had a net margin of 2.51% and a return on equity of 12.98%. Analysts forecast that Standard Motor Products, Inc. will post 4.4 EPS for the current year.

Standard Motor Products Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 15th will be given a dividend of $0.33 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 15th. This represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.5%. Standard Motor Products’s payout ratio is presently 64.71%.

Standard Motor Products Profile

Standard Motor Products, Inc, headquartered in Long Island City, New York, is a leading manufacturer and distributor of aftermarket and original equipment automotive parts. Since its founding in 1919, the company has focused on engineering, testing, and supplying ignition and temperature management products for passenger cars and light trucks. Its product lineup includes ignition coils, spark plug wires, sensors, switches, heating and air conditioning controls, and related electronic components.

The company operates through two primary segments: Engine Management and Temperature Control.