Bank of New York Mellon Corp Lowers Stock Holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp reduced its holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 3.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 956,879 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 31,341 shares during the quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp’s holdings in Garmin were worth $197,366,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GRMN. Citigroup Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 123.2% during the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 283,412 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $49,889,000 after acquiring an additional 156,441 shares during the period. Passumpsic Savings Bank acquired a new position in Garmin during the third quarter worth approximately $3,137,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Garmin by 24.2% during the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 17,529 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $3,086,000 after purchasing an additional 3,415 shares during the period. National Pension Service boosted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 25.7% in the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 284,065 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $50,004,000 after purchasing an additional 58,025 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Diversified Trust Co purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin during the 4th quarter valued at $734,000. 81.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GRMN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays lifted their target price on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and raised their price target for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Garmin currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $210.80.

Garmin Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE:GRMN opened at $223.98 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $43.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a 50 day moving average of $214.66 and a two-hundred day moving average of $197.16. Garmin Ltd. has a 52-week low of $134.11 and a 52-week high of $246.50.

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

Garmin Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.61%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s payout ratio is 41.04%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Garmin news, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.15, for a total value 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 $14,321,353.20. This represents a 9.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 27,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,743,019.88. This trade represents a 6.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 15,874 shares of company stock worth $3,571,966. 19.54% of the stock is currently 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.