King Luther Capital Management Corp Increases Stock Holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

King Luther Capital Management Corp grew its position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 1.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 9,125 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 152 shares during the period. King Luther Capital Management Corp’s holdings in Garmin were worth $1,882,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Garmin by 25.5% during the 4th quarter. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 1,619 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $334,000 after purchasing an additional 329 shares during the last quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance lifted its stake in Garmin by 23.5% in the fourth quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 2,246 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $463,000 after buying an additional 428 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Garmin by 6.7% during the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 20,134 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $4,153,000 after buying an additional 1,257 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its position in Garmin by 10.5% in the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 102,425 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $21,126,000 after buying an additional 9,741 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Argentarii LLC bought a new position in shares of Garmin in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $295,000. 81.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Garmin Trading Up 1.2 %

NYSE GRMN opened at $215.78 on Thursday. Garmin Ltd. has a 1 year low of $138.86 and a 1 year high of $246.50. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $216.76 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $200.26. The company has a market cap of $41.52 billion, a PE ratio of 29.52, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96.

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

Garmin Dividend Announcement

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 given a $0.90 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.67%. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.04%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Insider Activity

In other Garmin news, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.14, for a total value of $1,635,862.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 149,525 shares in the company, valued at $33,963,108.50. This represents a 4.60 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total value of $366,270.39. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 27,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,743,019.88. This represents a 6.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 26,103 shares of company stock worth $5,852,364. 19.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Garmin

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.