First Horizon Advisors Inc. Cuts Stock Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

First Horizon Advisors Inc. lessened its stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 1.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 122,659 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 1,775 shares during the quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Garmin were worth $25,300,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GRMN. Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in Garmin by 111.7% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,319 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $215,000 after purchasing an additional 696 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its stake in Garmin by 172.4% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 48,351 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $8,511,000 after purchasing an additional 30,598 shares during the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its stake 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 acquiring an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Greenleaf Trust grew its stake in shares of Garmin by 4.6% during the third quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 3,783 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $666,000 after acquiring an additional 165 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin during the third quarter worth about $13,448,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Garmin 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 value of $366,270.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,743,019.88. The trade was a 6.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on GRMN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Barclays boosted their price target on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Morgan Stanley upgraded Garmin to a “sell” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their price target on Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Three 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Garmin currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $206.80.

Garmin Stock Down 1.9 %

Garmin stock opened at $224.67 on Friday. Garmin Ltd. has a 52 week low of $131.20 and a 52 week high of $246.50. The company has a market capitalization of $43.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.98. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $213.43 and a 200 day moving average price of $195.51.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.72 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.04%.

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.