Ieq Capital LLC Grows Holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Ieq Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 628.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 33,928 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 29,271 shares during the period. Ieq Capital LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $6,998,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in GRMN. Creative Planning increased its stake in shares of Garmin by 3.7% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 34,736 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $6,115,000 after buying an additional 1,244 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in Garmin by 111.7% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,319 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $215,000 after acquiring an additional 696 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in Garmin by 172.4% during the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 48,351 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $8,511,000 after purchasing an additional 30,598 shares during the period. Eastern Bank bought a new stake in shares of Garmin in the 3rd quarter valued at about $176,000. Finally, Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Garmin by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 4,314 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $759,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the period. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 in the company, valued at $5,743,019.88. This represents a 6.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Stock Performance

Shares of GRMN stock opened at $228.61 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.01, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 0.98. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $212.99 and its 200-day simple moving average is $194.84. Garmin Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $128.89 and a fifty-two week high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its quarterly 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. Garmin had a net margin of 25.48% and a return on equity of 17.99%. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.72 EPS. Garmin’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a $0.90 dividend. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.07%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

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.