Standard Motor Rides On Plant Consolidations, Relocations

On Mar 26, we issued an updated research report on Standard Motor Products, Inc. (NYSE:SMP) .

Long Island City, NY-based Standard Motor aims at attaining long-term strategic goals with the help of plant consolidations and relocations. In sync with this strategy, the company exited its factory in Grapevine, TX, while shifting some of the operations to Greenville, SC, and others to Reynosa, Mexico. Moreover, it is also closing the electronics facility in Orlando, FL, and relocating it to Independence, KS. All these moves are benefiting Standard Motor and helping it to strengthen its business.

Moreover, Standard Motor has promising long-term business prospects which allow it to deploy capital effectively. Recently, it raised the dividend by 10.5% to 21 cents per share.

In the last 30 days, the stock has not seen any revision in the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current quarter and it remained unchanged at 67 cents per share.

In the past three months, shares of Standard Motor outperformed the industry it belongs to. During this time frame, shares of the company rose 3% whereas the industry declined 5.8%.

Standard Motor carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 (Strong Buy) Rank stocks here.

A few better-ranked stocks in the auto space are General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) , Volkswagen (DE:VOWG_p) AG (OTC:VLKAY) and AB Volvo (OTC:VLVLY) . While General Motors sports a Zacks Rank #1, both Volkswagen and Volvo carry a Zacks Rank #2.

General Motors has an expected long-term growth rate of 8.4%. Shares of the company have inched up 1.2% in the past year.

Volkswagen has an expected long-term growth rate of 18.7%. Shares of the company have advanced 29.6% in the past year.

AB Volvo has an expected long-term growth rate of 15%. In the past year, shares of the company have rallied 22%.

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