Park Avenue Securities LLC Buys 319 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 12.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,962 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 319 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $441,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in Garmin in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Garmin during the 4th quarter worth $33,000. Headinvest LLC bought a new stake in Garmin during the third quarter valued at about $41,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in shares of Garmin by 35.2% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 380 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin during the fourth quarter worth about $51,000. 73.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays lifted their price objective on Garmin from $140.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Garmin from $155.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Bank of America lowered shares of Garmin from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $165.00 to $150.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 22nd. Tigress Financial upped their price target on shares of Garmin from $175.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 14th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Garmin from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $156.83.

Garmin Price Performance

Garmin stock opened at $162.92 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $31.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.49 and a beta of 0.98. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $161.55 and a two-hundred day moving average of $143.13. Garmin Ltd. has a 1 year low of $99.61 and a 1 year high of $171.64.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.42. The company had revenue of $1.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.25 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 17.26% and a net margin of 24.96%. Garmin’s revenue was up 20.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.02 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Garmin Ltd. will post 5.77 earnings per share 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 given a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.31%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Patrick Desbois sold 4,126 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.52, for a total transaction of $674,683.52. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 58,412 shares in the company, valued at $9,551,530.24. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 2,350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.63, for a total transaction of $379,830.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 28,010 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,527,256.30. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Patrick Desbois sold 4,126 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.52, for a total transaction of $674,683.52. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 58,412 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,551,530.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company 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.