Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) Announces Dividend Increase – $0.90 Per Share

Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 20th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a dividend of 0.90 per share by the scientific and technical instruments company on Friday, March 27th. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. This is an increase from Garmin’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75.

Garmin has increased its dividend payment by an average of 4.4% annually over the last three years. Garmin has a payout ratio of 37.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Garmin to earn $7.76 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 38.7%.

Garmin Stock Performance

GRMN stock traded down $13.32 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $228.61. 1,635,152 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 831,513. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.01, a P/E/G ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 0.98. The business has a 50 day moving average of $212.99 and a 200-day moving average of $194.84. Garmin has a 52-week low of $128.89 and a 52-week high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 25.48% and a return on equity of 17.99%. The business’s revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.72 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Garmin will post 7.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GRMN. Tigress Financial raised their target price on shares of Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Garmin to a “sell” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $195.67.

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In other Garmin news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total value of $366,270.39. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares in the company, valued at $5,743,019.88. This trade represents a 6.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 19.54% of the stock is owned by 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.