CMC Financial Group Takes Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

CMC Financial Group acquired a new stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 1,096 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $226,000. Garmin comprises 0.5% of CMC Financial Group’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th biggest position.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Garmin by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,067,708 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $3,726,645,000 after purchasing an additional 215,344 shares during the last quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP lifted its position in Garmin by 55.6% during the fourth quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP now owns 2,708 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $559,000 after purchasing an additional 968 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC lifted its position in 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 valued at $20,963,000 after purchasing an additional 18,708 shares during the last quarter. Fox Run Management L.L.C. bought a new stake in Garmin during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $827,000. Finally, KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new stake in Garmin during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $22,381,000. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Garmin Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE GRMN opened at $209.78 on Monday. Garmin Ltd. has a 52 week low of $138.86 and a 52 week high of $246.50. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $216.96 and its 200 day moving average is $201.81. The company has a market cap of $40.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.70, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.72 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a $0.90 dividend. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s payout ratio is 49.25%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on GRMN. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on shares of Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Three equities research 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $210.80.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Garmin news, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.15, for a total transaction of $1,569,833.65. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 63,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,321,353.20. The trade was a 9.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total transaction of $609,677.79. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,432 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,817,180.32. The trade was a 25.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 24,342 shares of company stock valued at $5,486,094 over the last three months. 19.54% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Garmin 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.