Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) Shares Bought by Paradigm Asset Management Co. LLC

Paradigm Asset Management Co. LLC grew its stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 45.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 8,300 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,600 shares during the quarter. Paradigm Asset Management Co. LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $1,712,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Garmin by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,863 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $591,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Curbstone Financial Management Corp raised its stake in Garmin by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Curbstone Financial Management Corp now owns 3,886 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $802,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Garmin by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,821 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $788,000 after buying an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Outlook Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Garmin by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Outlook Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,332 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $481,000 after buying an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB raised its stake in Garmin by 8.5% during the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 804 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $166,000 after buying an additional 63 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Garmin news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The stock was 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Barclays upped their price objective on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Tigress Financial upped their target price on Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Garmin to a “sell” rating and upped their target price for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $195.67.

Garmin Price Performance

Shares of GRMN stock opened at $228.61 on Friday. Garmin Ltd. has a 12-month low of $128.89 and a 12-month high of $246.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.98. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $212.99 and a 200 day simple moving average of $194.84.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.51. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 22.42%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.72 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a $0.90 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.57%. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.04%.

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.