Strong Tower Advisory Services Trims Stock Holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Strong Tower Advisory Services reduced its stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 2.0% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 12,199 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 254 shares during the period. Strong Tower Advisory Services’ holdings in Garmin were worth $1,568,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Garmin by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,276,118 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $2,049,121,000 after buying an additional 365,713 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in Garmin by 3.5% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 15,562,275 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,622,990,000 after purchasing an additional 527,327 shares during the period. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership increased its stake in Garmin by 2.5% during the third quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 7,246,834 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $762,367,000 after purchasing an additional 176,510 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in Garmin by 5.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,798,228 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $545,971,000 after purchasing an additional 355,087 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Garmin by 2.1% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,433,511 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $345,772,000 after purchasing an additional 70,082 shares during the period. 73.41% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. Barrington Research boosted their price objective on Garmin from $119.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Tigress Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating and set a $175.00 price objective (up from $165.00) on shares of Garmin in a research report on Tuesday, February 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Garmin from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $135.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $131.50.

Garmin Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of GRMN opened at $148.93 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $133.59 and a 200 day moving average price of $121.89. The company has a market capitalization of $28.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.87 and a beta of 0.97. Garmin Ltd. has a 52-week low of $94.89 and a 52-week high of $149.54.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.40 by $0.32. The firm had revenue of $1.48 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.41 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 16.60% and a net margin of 24.67%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.35 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 5.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.01%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. Garmin’s payout ratio is currently 43.52%.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In other news, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,587 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.18, for a total transaction of $349,710.66. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 7,174 shares in the company, valued at $969,781.32. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Garmin news, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 1,622 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.19, for a total value of $217,656.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 159,319 shares in the company, valued at $21,379,016.61. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,587 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.18, for a total value of $349,710.66. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 7,174 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $969,781.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 99,476 shares of company stock worth $14,166,944 over the last 90 days. 19.89% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.