New York Life Investment Management LLC Purchases 224 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

New York Life Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 1.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 21,187 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 224 shares during the period. New York Life Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $4,370,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Citigroup Inc. increased its holdings in Garmin by 123.2% during the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 283,412 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $49,889,000 after buying an additional 156,441 shares during the last quarter. Passumpsic Savings Bank purchased a new position in Garmin during the third quarter valued at $3,137,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Garmin by 24.2% in the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 17,529 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $3,086,000 after buying an additional 3,415 shares in the last quarter. National Pension Service raised its stake in shares of Garmin by 25.7% in the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 284,065 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $50,004,000 after buying an additional 58,025 shares during the period. Finally, Diversified Trust Co purchased a new stake in Garmin in the 4th quarter worth approximately $734,000. Institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Stock Up 2.2 %

Shares of GRMN opened at $228.88 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $215.06 and a 200 day moving average of $197.77. The company has a market cap of $44.04 billion, a PE ratio of 31.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin Ltd. has a 52-week low of $136.25 and a 52-week 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 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 the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The firm’s revenue was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.72 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio is currently 41.04%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and upped their price target for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $210.80.

Insider Activity at Garmin

In other Garmin news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 2,763 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.55, for a total transaction of $625,957.65. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,936 shares in the company, valued at $7,008,550.80. This trade represents a 8.20 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Matthew Munn sold 4,637 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $225.31, for a total value of $1,044,762.47. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 11,450 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,579,799.50. This represents a 28.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 23,274 shares of company stock worth $5,242,686 in the last quarter. 19.54% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.