Gentex Reports Q4 Earnings Below Street View As Costs Bite - Gentex (NASDAQ:GNTX)

Gentex Corp GNTX reported fourth-quarter FY22 sales growth of 18% year-on-year to $493.65 million, missing the consensus of $503.93 million.
Automotive net sales improved 17.9% to $482.9 million. Auto-dimming mirror unit shipments rose 12%.
Light vehicle production increased by 7% quarter over quarter in the primary markets of North America, Europe, and Japan and Korea.
Gross profit margin of 31.2% contracted 310 basis points Y/Y, impacted by raw material cost increases, unfavorable product mix, and increased manufacturing costs stemming from labor cost increases and inefficiencies created by customer order volatility.
Operating expenses rose by 7% to $59.7 million. The operating margin was 19%, and the operating income rose 6.9% Y/Y to $94.1 million.
EPS of $0.37 missed the analyst consensus of $0.38.
The company repurchased 0.8 million shares of its common stock during Q4 at an average price of $27.17 per share. It had 20.8 million shares remaining available for repurchase as of Dec. 31, 2022.
The company held $237.7 million in cash and equivalents as of Dec. 31, 2022.
Gentex CEO, Steve Downing said, "Heading into 2023, we continue to see strong demand for our products which should result in record revenue performance for the year, and will assist our ongoing efforts focused on margin recovery throughout 2023 and 2024."
Outlook: Gentex expects FY23 revenue of about $2.2 billion (consensus $2.19 billion). It expects FY23 gross margin of 32% - 33%.
GNTX expects calendar year 2024 revenue growth of approximately 10% above the 2023 revenue guidance.
Price Action: GNTX shares are trading lower by 1.03% at $28.89 on the last check Friday.

Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs