Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Grows Holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. grew its holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 4.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 72,582 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,017 shares during the period. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in Garmin were worth $14,971,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Garmin during the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. bought a new position in shares of Garmin during the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Larson Financial Group LLC grew its position in shares of Garmin by 578.6% during the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 190 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 162 shares in the last quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. bought a new position in shares of Garmin during the 4th quarter worth $37,000. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new position in shares of Garmin during the 3rd quarter worth $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 2,763 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.55, for a total value of $625,957.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,936 shares in the company, valued at $7,008,550.80. This trade represents a 8.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.14, for a total value of $1,635,862.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 149,525 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,963,108.50. The trade was a 4.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 24,342 shares of company stock valued at $5,486,094. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Garmin Price Performance

Shares of GRMN stock opened at $209.78 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $40.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.70, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $216.96 and its 200 day moving average is $201.66. Garmin Ltd. has a 1-year low of $138.86 and a 1-year high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.51. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 22.42%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.72 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a $0.90 dividend. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.72%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio is presently 41.04%.

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.