By otakuyassine3@gmail.com 
Principal Securities Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN – Free Report) by 23.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,781 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 333 shares during the period. Principal Securities Inc.’s holdings in Garmin were worth $367,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GRMN. Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Garmin by 111.7% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,319 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $215,000 after purchasing an additional 696 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in shares of Garmin by 172.4% in the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 48,351 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $8,511,000 after purchasing an additional 30,598 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its holdings in Garmin by 2.0% during the third quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 4,314 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $759,000 after buying an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Greenleaf Trust boosted its holdings in Garmin by 4.6% during the third quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 3,783 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $666,000 after buying an additional 165 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Garmin during the third quarter worth $13,448,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
A number of brokerages recently issued reports on GRMN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Tigress Financial increased their price target on shares of Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Garmin presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $206.80.
Check Out Our Latest Research Report on Garmin
Garmin Stock Down 1.9 %
GRMN opened at $224.67 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $43.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.73, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin Ltd. has a 52-week low of $131.20 and a 52-week high of $246.50. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $213.43 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $195.51.
Garmin (NYSE:GRMN – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.51. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The company’s revenue was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.72 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current year.
Garmin Announces Dividend
The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s payout ratio is 41.04%.
Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin
In other news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total value of $366,270.39. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares in the company, valued at $5,743,019.88. This represents a 6.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.
Garmin Company Profile
Garmin Ltd. designs, develops, manufactures, markets, and distributes a range of wireless devices worldwide. Its Fitness segment offers running and multi-sport watches; cycling products; smartwatch devices; scales and monitors; and fitness accessories. This segment also provides Garmin Connect and Garmin Connect Mobile, which are web and mobile platforms where users can track and analyze their fitness, activities and workouts, and wellness data; and Connect IQ, an application development platform.
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