Stifel Financial Corp Reduces Stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Stifel Financial Corp cut its holdings in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 19.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 29,273 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 7,114 shares during the quarter. Stifel Financial Corp’s holdings in Garmin were worth $6,039,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of GRMN. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in Garmin by 1.7% during 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 purchasing an additional 49 shares during the period. Curbstone Financial Management Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Curbstone Financial Management Corp now owns 3,886 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $802,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 26.8% in the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 241 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $50,000 after buying an additional 51 shares during the period. Addison Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Garmin by 11.1% during the fourth quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 522 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $108,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the period. Finally, HB Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Garmin by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,821 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $788,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. Tigress Financial upped 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Garmin from $260.00 to $220.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded Garmin to a “sell” rating and raised their target price for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $202.80.

Garmin Price Performance

Shares of Garmin stock opened at $204.48 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $39.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.97, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.92. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $205.90 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $206.22. Garmin Ltd. has a 12 month low of $144.41 and a 12 month high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.51. Garmin had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 22.42%. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.72 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.76%. Garmin’s payout ratio is presently 49.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In other Garmin news, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.14, for a total value of $1,635,862.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,525 shares in the company, valued at $33,963,108.50. This represents a 4.60 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 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 value of $1,569,833.65. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 63,048 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,321,353.20. This represents a 9.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 24,342 shares of company stock worth $5,486,094. Insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Company 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.