Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich Invests $321,000 in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich bought a new stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 1,408 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $321,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Garmin by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,912,536 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,216,819,000 after purchasing an additional 134,303 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Garmin by 2.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,363,464 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $765,912,000 after purchasing an additional 112,815 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Garmin by 40.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,775,154 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $664,540,000 after buying an additional 1,093,219 shares during the last quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN raised its stake in Garmin by 3.6% in the third quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 1,401,004 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $246,619,000 after buying an additional 48,645 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Garmin by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 889,838 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $183,538,000 after buying an additional 14,200 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Stock Performance

NYSE GRMN opened at $215.11 on Tuesday. Garmin Ltd. has a one year low of $138.86 and a one year high of $246.50. The firm has a market cap of $41.39 billion, a PE ratio of 29.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $216.43 and its two-hundred day moving average is $199.91.

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

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a $0.90 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.67%. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio is currently 41.04%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on GRMN shares. Morgan Stanley upgraded Garmin to a “sell” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Tigress Financial increased 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $210.80.

Insider Activity at Garmin

In other news, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.14, for a total transaction of $1,635,862.28. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 149,525 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,963,108.50. The trade was a 4.60 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.15, for a total value of $1,569,833.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 63,048 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,321,353.20. This represents a 9.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 23,274 shares of company stock worth $5,242,686 over the last three months. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Garmin 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.