Rice Hall James & Associates LLC Has $2.41 Million Position in Standard Motor Products, Inc. (NYSE:SMP)

Rice Hall James & Associates LLC lessened its position in Standard Motor Products, Inc. (NYSE:SMP) by 0.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 96,497 shares of the auto parts company’s stock after selling 666 shares during the period. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC’s holdings in Standard Motor Products were worth $2,406,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Standard Motor Products by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,655,886 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $51,299,000 after acquiring an additional 69,000 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Standard Motor Products by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 929,813 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $28,806,000 after acquiring an additional 19,180 shares during the period. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL grew its position in shares of Standard Motor Products by 4.7% in the 4th quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 717,457 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $22,227,000 after acquiring an additional 32,197 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in shares of Standard Motor Products by 21.1% in the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 497,258 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $15,405,000 after acquiring an additional 86,640 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Standard Motor Products by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 494,489 shares of the auto parts company’s stock valued at $15,323,000 after acquiring an additional 9,190 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 81.26% of the company’s stock.

Standard Motor Products Stock Performance

Shares of SMP opened at $33.06 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $30.41 and a 200-day moving average of $28.80. Standard Motor Products, Inc. has a one year low of $21.38 and a one year high of $35.92. The company has a market cap of $726.65 million, a PE ratio of 23.61 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 2.32 and a quick ratio of 0.86.

Standard Motor Products (NYSE:SMP) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The auto parts company reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.44 by $0.37. The business had revenue of $413.38 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $394.38 million. Standard Motor Products had a net margin of 2.02% and a return on equity of 12.12%. Standard Motor Products’s revenue was up 24.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.45 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Standard Motor Products, Inc. will post 3.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Standard Motor Products Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, May 15th were issued a dividend of $0.31 per share. This is an increase from Standard Motor Products’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.75%. Standard Motor Products’s payout ratio is presently 88.57%.

Standard Motor Products Company Profile

Standard Motor Products, Inc manufactures and distributes replacement automotive parts in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Vehicle Control, Temperature Control, and Engineered Solutions segments. The company provides components for the ignition, emissions, and fuel delivery systems, such as air injection and induction components, air management valves, regulators and solenoids, exhaust gas recirculation components, fuel injectors and related components, fuel valves, ignition coils, connectors and sockets, modules, pumps, relays and fuses, starting and charging system parts, and vapor and purge components.