Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. Takes Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 13,330 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,749,000.

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

Garmin Stock Performance

NYSE GRMN opened at $212.43 on Tuesday. Garmin Ltd. has a one year low of $138.86 and a one year high of $246.50. The company has a market capitalization of $40.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $217.09 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $201.06.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.51. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 19.31%. Garmin’s revenue was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.72 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s payout ratio is currently 41.04%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on GRMN shares. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of 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 shares of Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded Garmin to a “sell” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $210.80.

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In other Garmin news, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were 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 directly owns 63,048 shares in the company, valued at $14,321,353.20. This trade represents a 9.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,743,019.88. The trade was a 6.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 26,103 shares of company stock worth $5,852,364 over the last quarter. 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.