Denali Advisors LLC Invests $179,000 in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Denali Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 1,204 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $179,000.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership raised its stake in shares of Garmin by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 7,310,112 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $939,642,000 after buying an additional 63,278 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Garmin by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,715,703 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $220,541,000 after purchasing an additional 45,242 shares in the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN increased its stake in Garmin by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 1,291,589 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $166,021,000 after purchasing an additional 54,001 shares in the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System increased its stake in Garmin by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 932,299 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $119,838,000 after purchasing an additional 6,858 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in Garmin by 28.4% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 862,527 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $110,869,000 after purchasing an additional 190,739 shares in the last quarter. 73.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In other Garmin news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 2,350 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.63, for a total value of $379,830.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 28,010 shares in the company, valued at $4,527,256.30. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 2,350 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.63, for a total value of $379,830.50. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 28,010 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,527,256.30. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Patrick Desbois sold 4,126 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.52, for a total transaction of $674,683.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 58,412 shares in the company, valued at $9,551,530.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on GRMN shares. Bank of America downgraded shares of Garmin from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $165.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 22nd. StockNews.com raised shares of Garmin from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Garmin from $140.00 to $166.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Garmin from $155.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their price objective on shares of Garmin from $175.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $156.83.

Garmin Stock Down 0.2 %

GRMN traded down $0.34 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $161.15. 442,463 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 864,560. Garmin Ltd. has a 1-year low of $99.61 and a 1-year high of $171.64. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $162.34 and its two-hundred day moving average is $143.74. The stock has a market cap of $30.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.75, a PEG ratio of 3.51 and a beta of 0.98.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.42 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.42. Garmin had a net margin of 24.96% and a return on equity of 17.26%. The business had revenue of $1.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.25 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.02 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 20.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 5.77 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Garmin’s payout ratio is 42.31%.

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.