Proficio Capital Partners LLC Takes Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Proficio Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm acquired 152,499 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,454,000.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Garmin by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,863 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $591,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Curbstone Financial Management Corp lifted its position in shares of Garmin by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Curbstone Financial Management Corp now owns 3,886 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $802,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Garmin by 11.1% in the fourth quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 522 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $108,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Garmin by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,821 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $788,000 after buying an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund lifted its position in shares of Garmin by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 13,185 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $2,720,000 after buying an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Garmin Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GRMN opened at $228.88 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.31, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.98. The business’s 50 day moving average is $215.06 and its two-hundred day moving average is $197.58. Garmin Ltd. has a 1-year low of $136.25 and a 1-year high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.51. The firm 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 company’s quarterly revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.72 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

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 paid a dividend of $0.90 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.57%. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio is 41.04%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on GRMN. Barclays boosted their target price on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research 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 research report on Wednesday. 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised 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. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $210.80.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of the business’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 completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 63,048 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,321,353.20. The trade was a 9.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Matthew Munn sold 4,637 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $225.31, for a total value of $1,044,762.47. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 11,450 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,579,799.50. The trade was a 28.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 23,274 shares of company stock valued at $5,242,686. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Garmin

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.