Pictet Asset Management Holding SA Trims Stock Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Pictet Asset Management Holding SA reduced its stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 8.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 538,718 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 47,724 shares during the period. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA’s holdings in Garmin were worth $111,116,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Garmin by 1.2% in the 4th 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 buying an additional 215,344 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 2.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,912,536 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,216,819,000 after acquiring an additional 134,303 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Garmin by 2.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,363,464 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $765,912,000 after acquiring an additional 112,815 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Garmin by 40.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,775,154 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $664,540,000 after purchasing an additional 1,093,219 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Garmin in the fourth quarter valued at about $396,184,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Garmin

In other news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 2,763 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.55, for a total transaction of $625,957.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,936 shares in the company, valued at $7,008,550.80. The trade was a 8.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 $1,817,180.32. The trade was a 25.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 24,342 shares of company stock valued at $5,486,094. 19.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Garmin Stock Performance

GRMN opened at $213.59 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $41.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.22, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. Garmin Ltd. has a one year low of $138.86 and a one year high of $246.50. The business’s fifty day moving average is $217.31 and its two-hundred day moving average is $202.73.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.72 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a dividend of $0.90 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.69%. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.25%.

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.