Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC Sells 1,708 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC lowered its stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 9.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 15,779 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 1,708 shares during the period. Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $3,255,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of 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 worth $591,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Curbstone Financial Management Corp raised its stake in Garmin by 1.3% in 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 acquiring an additional 50 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its stake in Garmin by 26.8% in the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 241 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $50,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares during the period. Addison Advisors LLC raised its stake in Garmin by 11.1% in the 4th quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 522 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $108,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the period. Finally, HB Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Garmin by 1.4% in 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 acquiring an additional 53 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GRMN opened at $208.95 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $216.85 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $200.32. Garmin Ltd. has a one year low of $138.86 and a one year high of $246.50. The firm has a market cap of $40.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96.

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

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.72%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 41.04%.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In related news, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total transaction of $609,677.79. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,432 shares in the company, valued at $1,817,180.32. This represents a 25.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 149,525 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,963,108.50. This represents a 4.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 26,103 shares of company stock valued at $5,852,364. 19.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on GRMN shares. Morgan Stanley upgraded Garmin to a “sell” rating and increased their price target for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Tigress Financial increased their price target on Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Barclays upped their price objective on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $210.80.

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.