What happened
Investors in Gentex (GNTX 0.86%) had a rough ride in December. Shares of Gentex, a leading global supplier of automotive mirrors and related displays, dropped 10.3% last month, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.
We can probably attribute quite a bit of Gentex's December decline to the broader market sell-off: The benchmark S&P 500 Index was down just over 9% on the month. But there's probably another worry on the minds of Gentex investors: the growing possibility of a big slowdown in car sales in key markets around the world.
So what
Gentex was far from the only auto-related stock to drop by double-digit percentages in December. Shares of all three of the Detroit automakers declined by more than 10%, as did those of key suppliers closely linked to the slumping Chinese new-car market.
A Gentex rearview mirror that uses cameras to provide an unobstructed view behind the car is offered by GM on several models, including the Cadillac CT6 shown here. Image source: General Motors.
Gentex makes high-tech automotive rearview mirrors. If your car's mirror does anything more than reflect light -- like dimming itself at night or displaying information -- odds are high that Gentex made it. The company owns about 90% of the global market for such mirrors, which are very common in upscale and luxury vehicles in the U.S., Europe, Japan, and China.
Obviously, a slump in auto sales that leads automakers to cut production will hurt Gentex's sales as well. Given that passenger-car sales in China fell 16% in 2018 and that the late-November announcement of a major restructuring at apparently healthy General Motors (GM 3.48%) has investors worried that a slowdown in the U.S. could be looming, it's no surprise that Gentex's stock took a heavy hit in December.
Now what
Gentex will report its fourth-quarter and full-year 2018 earnings results before the bell on Wednesday, Jan. 30. We'll learn more about the state of its China business and Gentex's expectations for 2019 at that time.
