Mizuho Securities USA LLC Has $3 Million Stock Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Mizuho Securities USA LLC lifted its position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 46.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 14,560 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,589 shares during the period. Mizuho Securities USA LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $3,003,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in shares of Garmin during the fourth quarter worth $127,000. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Garmin during the fourth quarter worth $457,000. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Garmin during the fourth quarter worth $94,000. Blueshift Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 315.7% during the fourth quarter. Blueshift Asset Management LLC now owns 7,712 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,591,000 after buying an additional 5,857 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas raised its stake in Garmin by 79.3% in the fourth quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 361,490 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $74,561,000 after purchasing an additional 159,860 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Stock Up 0.5 %

Garmin stock opened at $209.78 on Monday. Garmin Ltd. has a 12-month low of $138.86 and a 12-month high of $246.50. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $216.96 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $201.81. The stock has a market cap of $40.36 billion, a PE ratio of 28.70, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.51. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 22.42%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.72 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.72%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.25%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on GRMN. Tigress Financial boosted their price target on Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley raised Garmin to a “sell” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Three 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $210.80.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In related news, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total value of $609,677.79. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,817,180.32. The trade was a 25.12 % 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. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 2,763 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.55, for a total value of $625,957.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,936 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,008,550.80. This represents a 8.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 24,342 shares of company stock worth $5,486,094. Insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

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.