Vanguard Group Inc. Has $3.73 Billion Stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 1.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 18,067,708 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 215,344 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 9.41% of Garmin worth $3,726,645,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Stevens Capital Management LP boosted its stake in shares of Garmin by 55.6% during the 4th quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP now owns 2,708 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $559,000 after buying an additional 968 shares during the period. LPL Financial LLC raised its holdings in shares of Garmin by 22.6% during the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 101,635 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $20,963,000 after acquiring an additional 18,708 shares in the last quarter. Fox Run Management L.L.C. acquired a new stake in Garmin during the fourth quarter valued at $827,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new position in Garmin in the fourth quarter valued at about $22,381,000. Finally, AXQ Capital LP acquired a new position in Garmin in the 4th quarter worth about $1,010,000. 81.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Garmin Trading Up 2.1 %

NYSE GRMN opened at $214.67 on Tuesday. Garmin Ltd. has a 1 year low of $138.86 and a 1 year high of $246.50. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $217.09 and a 200 day simple moving average of $202.05. The company has a market cap of $41.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96.

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 net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.72 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.68%. Garmin’s payout ratio is 49.25%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 149,525 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,963,108.50. This trade represents a 4.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total transaction of $609,677.79. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 8,432 shares in the company, valued at $1,817,180.32. This represents a 25.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 24,342 shares of company stock valued at $5,486,094. Insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

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.