Smartleaf Asset Management LLC Acquires 224 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 32.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 909 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 224 shares during the period. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $189,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Garmin by 10.4% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 986 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $173,000 after purchasing an additional 93 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in Garmin by 6.9% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 28,241 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $4,563,000 after buying an additional 1,814 shares in the last quarter. National Pension Service boosted its position in Garmin by 25.7% during the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 284,065 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $50,004,000 after acquiring an additional 58,025 shares in the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Garmin by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 61,514 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $10,828,000 after acquiring an additional 1,136 shares during the period. Finally, Amalgamated Bank raised its position in shares of Garmin by 12.7% in the 3rd quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 35,188 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $6,194,000 after acquiring an additional 3,975 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on GRMN. Morgan Stanley upgraded Garmin to a “sell” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their price target on shares of Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Garmin has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $210.80.

Garmin Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:GRMN opened at $224.97 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $215.85 and a 200-day moving average price of $198.87. The company has a market capitalization of $43.29 billion, a PE ratio of 30.78, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin Ltd. has a 1-year low of $138.86 and a 1-year 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 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.51. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 19.31%. Garmin’s revenue was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.72 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In related news, Director Matthew Munn sold 4,637 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $225.31, for a total transaction of $1,044,762.47. Following the transaction, the director now owns 11,450 shares in the company, valued at $2,579,799.50. This represents a 28.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total transaction of $366,270.39. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 27,612 shares in the company, valued at $5,743,019.88. This represents a 6.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 23,274 shares of company stock worth $5,242,686. 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.