Texas Permanent School Fund Corp Reduces Stock Holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Texas Permanent School Fund Corp lessened its stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 20.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 25,310 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 6,333 shares during the quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp’s holdings in Garmin were worth $4,124,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC lifted its position in Garmin by 3.3% in the first quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 2,309 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $344,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 2,879 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $469,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the last quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV boosted its position in shares of Garmin by 17.6% in the 1st quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 542 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $81,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the period. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Garmin by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 2,168 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $279,000 after buying an additional 84 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in Garmin by 3.4% during the second quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,629 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $428,000 after buying an additional 86 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.41% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Garmin news, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,055 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.16, for a total transaction of $1,781,343.80. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 40,965 shares in the company, valued at $7,257,359.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.46, for a total transaction of $499,015.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 88,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,081,348.12. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,055 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.16, for a total transaction of $1,781,343.80. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 40,965 shares in the company, valued at $7,257,359.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 12,892 shares of company stock worth $2,296,174. Corporate insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on GRMN shares. StockNews.com downgraded Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday. Barclays downgraded shares of Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $181.00 to $133.00 in a research report on Friday. Finally, Bank of America cut shares of Garmin from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $165.00 to $150.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $151.33.

Garmin Stock Down 5.1 %

Shares of Garmin stock opened at $172.68 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $33.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.00. Garmin Ltd. has a 52-week low of $99.61 and a 52-week high of $184.42. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $173.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $161.14.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.40 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.42 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 17.09% and a net margin of 24.36%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.45 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 6.05 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 42.31%.

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.