Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) Shares Sold by Pictet Asset Management Holding SA

Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lowered its stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 8.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 538,718 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 47,724 shares during the period. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA owned approximately 0.28% of Garmin worth $111,116,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Garmin during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. purchased a new position in Garmin during the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in Garmin by 578.6% during the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 190 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 162 shares during the period. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. acquired a new position in Garmin in the 4th quarter valued at about $37,000. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. purchased a new stake in Garmin during the third quarter worth about $39,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Garmin Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of GRMN opened at $213.59 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $217.31 and its 200-day simple moving average is $202.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.22, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. Garmin Ltd. has a twelve month low of $138.86 and a twelve month high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.72 EPS. Garmin’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.69%. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 149,525 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,963,108.50. The trade was a 4.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total value of $609,677.79. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,817,180.32. This trade represents a 25.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 24,342 shares of company stock valued at $5,486,094. 19.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.