Lbp Am Sa Reduces Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Lbp Am Sa decreased its holdings in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 37.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,297 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 7,979 shares during the quarter. Lbp Am Sa’s holdings in Garmin were worth $2,743,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of GRMN. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Larson Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Garmin by 578.6% in the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 190 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 162 shares during the period. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin in the fourth quarter valued at about $37,000. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin in the third quarter valued at about $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Tigress Financial upped their price objective 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. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $210.80.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In related 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 27,612 shares of the company’s stock, 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 through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.14, for a total transaction of $1,635,862.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,525 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,963,108.50. This trade represents a 4.60 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 26,103 shares of company stock valued at $5,852,364. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Garmin Price Performance

NYSE GRMN opened at $214.00 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $216.99 and its two-hundred day moving average is $200.69. Garmin Ltd. has a 12 month low of $138.86 and a 12 month high of $246.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.28, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.72 earnings per share. Garmin’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be given 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 dividend payout ratio is presently 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.