3,149 Shares in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) Bought by Meitav Investment House Ltd.

Meitav Investment House Ltd. bought a new stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 3,149 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $653,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of GRMN. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Garmin by 40.8% during 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 in the last quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. acquired a new position in Garmin during the third quarter worth $53,252,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its position in Garmin by 1,580.3% during the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 287,283 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $50,570,000 after buying an additional 270,186 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its holdings in Garmin by 123.8% during the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 486,281 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $85,600,000 after buying an additional 268,996 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV lifted its position in shares of Garmin by 560.8% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 203,713 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $35,860,000 after buying an additional 172,883 shares during the last quarter. 81.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GRMN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. 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. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Garmin presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $195.67.

Insider Activity at Garmin

In other Garmin news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of Garmin 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 in the company, valued at $5,743,019.88. The trade was a 6.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Trading Down 5.5 %

GRMN opened at $228.61 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $212.99 and a 200-day moving average of $194.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.01, a P/E/G ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin Ltd. has a 1-year low of $128.89 and a 1-year high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 25.48% and a return on equity of 17.99%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.72 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.09 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.07%.

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.