Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC Buys 4,620 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC increased its stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 71.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,063 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,620 shares during the quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $2,282,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Garmin by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,912,536 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,216,819,000 after acquiring an additional 134,303 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Garmin by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,363,464 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $765,912,000 after purchasing an additional 112,815 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its position in Garmin by 40.8% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,775,154 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $664,540,000 after purchasing an additional 1,093,219 shares during the period. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN grew its position in Garmin by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 1,401,004 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $246,619,000 after purchasing an additional 48,645 shares during the period. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors grew its position in Garmin by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 767,729 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $135,143,000 after purchasing an additional 30,011 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In other news, Director Matthew Munn sold 4,637 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $225.31, for a total transaction of $1,044,762.47. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 11,450 shares in the company, valued at $2,579,799.50. The trade was a 28.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 2,763 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.55, for a total value of $625,957.65. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 30,936 shares in the company, valued at $7,008,550.80. The trade was a 8.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 23,274 shares of company stock worth $5,242,686 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently issued reports on GRMN. 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 research report on Tuesday, February 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on shares of Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target 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 equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Garmin currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $210.80.

Garmin Price Performance

GRMN opened at $219.51 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $42.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.03, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $216.28 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $199.50. Garmin Ltd. has a 1 year low of $138.86 and a 1 year 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 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.51. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.72 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

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. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s payout ratio is 41.04%.

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.