Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Decreases Stock Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans decreased its position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 0.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 742,469 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 2,448 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ holdings in Garmin were worth $153,148,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Garmin by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,912,536 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,216,819,000 after acquiring an additional 134,303 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Garmin by 2.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,363,464 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $765,912,000 after purchasing an additional 112,815 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in Garmin by 40.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,775,154 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $664,540,000 after purchasing an additional 1,093,219 shares during the last quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN grew its stake in shares of Garmin by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 1,401,004 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $246,619,000 after buying an additional 48,645 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Garmin by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 889,838 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $183,538,000 after buying an additional 14,200 shares during the last quarter. 81.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In other Garmin news, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.14, for a total transaction of $1,635,862.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,525 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,963,108.50. The trade was a 4.60 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares in the company, valued at $5,743,019.88. The trade was a 6.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 26,103 shares of company stock valued at $5,852,364 in the last three months. Company insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE GRMN opened at $212.43 on Tuesday. Garmin Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $138.86 and a fifty-two week high of $246.50. The company has a market cap of $40.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.06, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $217.09 and its 200-day moving average price is $201.06.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.51. Garmin had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 22.42%. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.72 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.90 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. Garmin’s payout ratio is 41.04%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

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.