TRUE Private Wealth Advisors Purchases New Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

TRUE Private Wealth Advisors acquired a new position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 1,224 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $252,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of GRMN. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Garmin during the 4th quarter worth approximately $396,184,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Garmin by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,067,708 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $3,726,645,000 after purchasing an additional 215,344 shares during the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH boosted its stake in shares of Garmin by 32.2% during the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 675,950 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $139,421,000 after buying an additional 164,818 shares during the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas boosted its stake in shares of Garmin by 79.3% during the 4th quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 361,490 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $74,561,000 after buying an additional 159,860 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Garmin during the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,795,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GRMN has been the topic of several research reports. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Garmin to a “sell” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target 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. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $210.80.

Garmin Trading Up 11.2 %

Garmin stock opened at $193.10 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $37.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.42, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.92. Garmin Ltd. has a 1-year low of $138.86 and a 1-year high of $246.50. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $212.72 and its 200-day simple moving average is $203.97.

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

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.86%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s payout ratio is currently 49.25%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.14, for a total transaction of $1,635,862.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,525 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,963,108.50. This trade represents a 4.60 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total transaction of $609,677.79. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,432 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,817,180.32. The trade was a 25.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 24,342 shares of company stock valued at $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.