Lee Danner & Bass Inc. Buys New Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Lee Danner & Bass Inc. acquired a new position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 453 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $94,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Blueshift Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Garmin by 315.7% in the fourth quarter. Blueshift Asset Management LLC now owns 7,712 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,591,000 after purchasing an additional 5,857 shares during the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas boosted its position in Garmin by 79.3% in the fourth quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 361,490 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $74,561,000 after purchasing an additional 159,860 shares during the last quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. boosted its position in Garmin by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 72,582 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $14,971,000 after purchasing an additional 3,017 shares during the last quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd boosted its position in Garmin by 392.1% in the fourth quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd now owns 3,381 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $698,000 after purchasing an additional 2,694 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Enhancing Capital LLC purchased a new position in Garmin in the fourth quarter worth $1,408,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on GRMN. Morgan Stanley raised Garmin to a “sell” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Barclays boosted their target price on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $210.80.

Garmin Stock Performance

NYSE:GRMN opened at $209.78 on Friday. Garmin Ltd. has a 52-week low of $138.86 and a 52-week high of $246.50. The firm has a market cap of $40.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.70, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. The business’s fifty day moving average is $216.96 and its 200 day moving average is $201.66.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.72 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current fiscal 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 paid 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 dividend yield of 1.72%. Garmin’s payout ratio is 41.04%.

Insider Activity at Garmin

In other Garmin news, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total value of $609,677.79. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,432 shares in the company, valued at $1,817,180.32. This represents a 25.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.14, for a total value of $1,635,862.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 149,525 shares in the company, valued at $33,963,108.50. This represents a 4.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 24,342 shares of company stock worth $5,486,094. 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.