Olympiad Research LP Acquires Shares of 1,593 Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Olympiad Research LP acquired a new stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 1,593 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $329,000.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Garmin during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Garmin during the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 162 shares during the last quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. purchased a new position in shares of Garmin during the 4th quarter valued at about $37,000. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. purchased a new position in shares of Garmin during the 3rd quarter valued at about $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Tigress Financial raised their target price on Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Garmin to a “sell” rating and raised their target price for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $206.80.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, 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 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Garmin Trading Down 1.9 %

GRMN stock opened at $224.67 on Friday. Garmin Ltd. has a 12-month low of $131.20 and a 12-month high of $246.50. The stock has a market cap of $43.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.73, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.98. The business’s 50-day moving average is $213.43 and its 200 day moving average is $195.51.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.72 EPS. Garmin’s revenue was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The company 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 $0.90 dividend. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s payout ratio is 41.04%.

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.