Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) to Issue $0.90 Quarterly Dividend

Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 21st, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a dividend of 0.90 per share by the scientific and technical instruments company on Friday, March 27th. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th.

Garmin has raised its dividend payment by an average of 4.4% annually over the last three years. Garmin has a payout ratio of 37.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Garmin to earn $7.98 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 37.6%.

Garmin Trading Down 1.9 %

GRMN opened at $224.67 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $213.24 and a 200 day moving average of $195.07. The company has a market cap of $43.23 billion, a PE ratio of 30.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin has a 12 month low of $131.20 and a 12 month high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 19.31%. Garmin’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.72 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Garmin will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have issued reports on GRMN. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Tigress Financial increased their target price on shares of Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $195.67.

Insider Activity

In other Garmin news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total value of $366,270.39. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 27,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,743,019.88. This trade represents a 6.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate 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.