Smartleaf Asset Management LLC Purchases 224 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 32.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 909 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 224 shares during the period. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $189,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Garmin in the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin in the 4th quarter worth $29,000. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. bought a new position in Garmin in the 4th quarter worth $37,000. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its position in Garmin by 578.6% during the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 190 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 162 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kentucky Trust Co bought a new stake in Garmin during the fourth quarter valued at about $41,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on GRMN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. 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 report on Tuesday, February 11th. Tigress Financial upped their price target on shares of Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report 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 company. According to MarketBeat, Garmin presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $210.80.

Garmin Price Performance

GRMN stock opened at $224.97 on Thursday. Garmin Ltd. has a 1-year low of $138.86 and a 1-year high of $246.50. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $215.85 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $198.87. The company has a market capitalization of $43.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.78, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.98.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced 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 22.42% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.72 EPS. Garmin’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s payout ratio is presently 41.04%.

Insider Activity at Garmin

In related news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the company’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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 27,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,743,019.88. This represents a 6.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.15, for a total transaction of $1,569,833.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 63,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,321,353.20. The trade was a 9.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 23,274 shares of company stock valued at $5,242,686. 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.