Olympiad Research LP Takes $329,000 Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Olympiad Research LP purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 1,593 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $329,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Citigroup Inc. raised its position 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 valued at $49,889,000 after buying an additional 156,441 shares during the period. Trajan Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Garmin by 9.1% during the 3rd quarter. Trajan Wealth LLC now owns 82,362 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $14,498,000 after buying an additional 6,878 shares during the period. Passumpsic Savings Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $3,137,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Garmin by 24.2% during the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 17,529 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $3,086,000 after buying an additional 3,415 shares during the period. Finally, National Pension Service raised its position in shares of Garmin by 25.7% during 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 buying an additional 58,025 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Stock Down 1.9 %

NYSE:GRMN opened at $224.67 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $213.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $195.51. The company has a market cap of $43.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin Ltd. has a 52 week low of $131.20 and a 52 week high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last posted its quarterly 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. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.72 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect 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. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a $0.90 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.60%. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.04%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on GRMN shares. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Tigress Financial boosted their target price 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 boosted their target price on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $206.80.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total transaction of $366,270.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 27,612 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,743,019.88. The trade was a 6.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 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.