Horizon Investments LLC Acquires 73 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Horizon Investments LLC raised its holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 2.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,409 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 73 shares during the period. Horizon Investments LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $703,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GRMN. Citigroup Inc. raised its holdings in Garmin by 123.2% in the 3rd 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 bought a new position in shares of Garmin during the third quarter valued at $3,137,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 24.2% during 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 purchasing an additional 3,415 shares during the period. Diversified Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of Garmin in the fourth quarter worth $734,000. Finally, Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. increased its holdings in Garmin by 42.5% in the fourth quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. now owns 431,188 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $88,937,000 after purchasing an additional 128,672 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Garmin Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE GRMN opened at $208.90 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $40.19 billion, a PE ratio of 28.58, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $217.00 and its 200-day moving average price is $201.28. Garmin Ltd. has a twelve month low of $138.86 and a twelve month high of $246.50.

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

Garmin Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a $0.90 dividend. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.72%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio is presently 41.04%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In related news, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total value of $609,677.79. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,817,180.32. This trade represents a 25.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the business’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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,743,019.88. This represents 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 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.