WESPAC Advisors LLC Decreases Stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

WESPAC Advisors LLC reduced its stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 12.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 4,554 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 652 shares during the period. WESPAC Advisors LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $939,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of GRMN. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in Garmin by 111.7% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,319 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $215,000 after purchasing an additional 696 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in Garmin by 172.4% in the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 48,351 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $8,511,000 after purchasing an additional 30,598 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC increased its stake in Garmin by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 4,314 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $759,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the period. Greenleaf Trust increased its stake in shares of Garmin by 4.6% during the third quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 3,783 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $666,000 after buying an additional 165 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Garmin during the third quarter valued at approximately $13,448,000. 81.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Garmin Stock Down 1.9 %

Shares of GRMN stock opened at $224.67 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $43.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.73, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.98. The business’s fifty day moving average is $213.43 and its 200 day moving average is $195.51. Garmin Ltd. has a twelve month low of $131.20 and a twelve month high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.51. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 22.42%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.72 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a $0.90 dividend. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.04%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Garmin news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the business’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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,743,019.88. The trade was a 6.00 % 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. Corporate insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on GRMN. Morgan Stanley raised Garmin to a “sell” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Barclays boosted their target price on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Garmin presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $206.80.

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.