Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) Shares Purchased by Amundi

Amundi boosted its holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 19.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 494,522 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 79,696 shares during the quarter. Amundi owned about 0.26% of Garmin worth $104,537,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Garmin in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. acquired a new position in Garmin in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. acquired a new position in Garmin in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Larson Financial Group LLC boosted 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 purchasing an additional 162 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kentucky Trust Co purchased a new stake in Garmin in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,000. 81.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on GRMN shares. Barclays boosted their price objective on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Garmin to a “sell” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $210.80.

Garmin Price Performance

Garmin stock opened at $215.11 on Tuesday. Garmin Ltd. has a 12 month low of $138.86 and a 12 month high of $246.50. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $216.43 and a 200-day simple moving average of $199.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.39 billion, a PE ratio of 29.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.72 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.04%.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In other Garmin news, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 27,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,743,019.88. The trade was a 6.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 23,274 shares of company stock worth $5,242,686 over the last 90 days. 19.54% of the stock is currently 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.