State of Michigan Retirement System Trims Stock Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

State of Michigan Retirement System trimmed its stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 47,897 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 500 shares during the quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System’s holdings in Garmin were worth $7,803,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership raised its stake in Garmin by 0.9% in 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 in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Garmin by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,715,703 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $220,541,000 after acquiring an additional 45,242 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners lifted its stake in shares of Garmin by 4.3% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,416,130 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $210,799,000 after purchasing an additional 58,343 shares during the period. Wells Fargo & Company MN boosted its position in shares of Garmin by 4.4% during 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. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew 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 worth $110,869,000 after purchasing an additional 190,739 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.41% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Stock Performance

Shares of Garmin stock opened at $180.65 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $168.74 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $156.69. The stock has a market capitalization of $34.70 billion, a PE ratio of 25.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin Ltd. has a 52-week low of $99.61 and a 52-week high of $181.26.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.40 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $1.51 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.42 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 24.36% and a return on equity of 17.09%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.45 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.66%. Garmin’s payout ratio is 42.31%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GRMN. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Garmin from $140.00 to $166.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Bank of America cut shares of Garmin from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $165.00 to $150.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 22nd. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on shares of Garmin from $175.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 14th. StockNews.com raised Garmin from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Garmin from $155.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $156.83.

Insider Activity at Garmin

In other news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 2,350 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.63, for a total transaction of $379,830.50. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 28,010 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,527,256.30. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Garmin news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 2,350 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.63, for a total transaction of $379,830.50. Following the completion of the sale, 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 filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,055 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.16, for a total transaction of $1,781,343.80. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 40,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,257,359.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 16,531 shares of company stock worth $2,835,858 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

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.