Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC Purchases 482 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 8.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,161 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 482 shares during the quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $1,271,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in Garmin by 1.7% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Curbstone Financial Management Corp increased its stake in Garmin by 1.3% during 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 purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC increased its stake in Garmin by 11.1% during the 4th quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 522 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $108,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Garmin by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,821 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $788,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund increased its stake in Garmin by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 13,185 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $2,720,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on GRMN. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and raised their price target for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their price target on shares of Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Three investment 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $210.80.

Garmin Trading Down 1.1 %

GRMN opened at $219.51 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $42.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.03, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. The company’s 50 day moving average is $216.28 and its 200 day moving average is $199.50. Garmin Ltd. has a 12-month low of $138.86 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 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.51. The company 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 firm’s revenue was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.72 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a $0.90 dividend. 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%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Garmin news, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.15, for a total transaction of $1,569,833.65. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 63,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,321,353.20. The trade was a 9.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Matthew Munn sold 4,637 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $225.31, for a total transaction of $1,044,762.47. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 11,450 shares in the company, valued at $2,579,799.50. This represents a 28.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 23,274 shares of company stock valued at $5,242,686. 19.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.