Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Boosts Stock Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund boosted its holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 1.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 104,340 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,618 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in Garmin were worth $21,521,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Private Advisor Group LLC increased its position in shares of Garmin by 2.0% during the third quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 4,314 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $759,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Garmin during the third quarter worth about $13,448,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of Garmin by 16.3% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 16,794 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $2,956,000 after purchasing an additional 2,349 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Garmin by 34.5% during the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 9,935 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,729,000 after purchasing an additional 2,547 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Forsta AP Fonden increased its position in Garmin by 9.5% in the 3rd quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 28,900 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $5,087,000 after acquiring an additional 2,500 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on GRMN. Barclays boosted their price target on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Tigress Financial boosted their price target on Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded Garmin to a “sell” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Three 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $206.80.

Garmin Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of GRMN opened at $222.59 on Tuesday. Garmin Ltd. has a twelve month low of $133.16 and a twelve month high of $246.50. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $213.43 and its two-hundred day moving average is $195.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $42.83 billion, a PE ratio of 30.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.98.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.51. Garmin had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 22.42%. The company 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 company earned $1.72 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.62%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.04%.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In other news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $5,743,019.88. The trade was a 6.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

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.