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

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. lifted its stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 1.5% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 68,322 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 985 shares during the quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in Garmin were worth $11,131,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Clearstead Trust LLC purchased a new stake in Garmin in the 1st quarter worth approximately $30,000. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Garmin in the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. Family Firm Inc. purchased a new stake in Garmin during the second quarter worth $35,000. West Oak Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Garmin during the second quarter valued at $53,000. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. purchased a new position in Garmin in the fourth quarter valued at $65,000. 73.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Garmin Stock Down 0.0 %

GRMN stock opened at $182.73 on Friday. Garmin Ltd. has a 52 week low of $99.61 and a 52 week high of $184.42. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $173.58 and a 200-day simple moving average of $160.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $35.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.77, a P/E/G ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 1.00.

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

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.31%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on GRMN. 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 research note on Wednesday, May 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $156.83.

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In other news, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.46, for a total value of $499,015.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 88,622 shares in the company, valued at $16,081,348.12. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Garmin news, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,055 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the insider now owns 40,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,257,359.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.46, for a total value of $499,015.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 88,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,081,348.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 12,892 shares of company stock worth $2,296,174. Corporate insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

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.