By otakuyassine3@gmail.com 
LPL Financial LLC raised its position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN – Free Report) by 22.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 101,635 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 18,708 shares during the quarter. LPL Financial LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $20,963,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in Garmin by 578.6% in the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 190 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 162 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its position in shares of Garmin by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 109,361 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $19,251,000 after acquiring an additional 366 shares in the last quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Garmin by 74.9% in the 3rd quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 2,700 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $475,000 after purchasing an additional 1,156 shares during the period. Glenmede Trust Co. NA boosted its position in shares of Garmin by 44.1% during the 3rd quarter. Glenmede Trust Co. NA now owns 2,326 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $409,000 after purchasing an additional 712 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its holdings in Garmin by 82.0% in the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 92,684 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $16,315,000 after purchasing an additional 41,771 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.
Analysts Set New Price Targets
GRMN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on shares of Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $210.80.
Get Our Latest Analysis on GRMN
Garmin Trading Down 1.6 %
Garmin stock opened at $213.59 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $217.31 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $203.03. Garmin Ltd. has a 1-year low of $138.86 and a 1-year high of $246.50.
Garmin (NYSE:GRMN – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share 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 analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.72 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current year.
Garmin Announces Dividend
The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.90 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.69%. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.25%.
Insider Activity at Garmin
In related news, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.15, for a total transaction of $1,569,833.65. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 63,048 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,321,353.20. The trade was a 9.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total transaction of $609,677.79. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,817,180.32. The trade was a 25.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 24,342 shares of company stock valued at $5,486,094. 19.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.
About Garmin
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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