QRG Capital Management Inc. Has $14.23 Million Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

QRG Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 4.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 68,985 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,692 shares during the quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Garmin were worth $14,229,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp increased its position in Garmin by 2.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,912,536 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,216,819,000 after buying an additional 134,303 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Garmin by 2.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,363,464 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $765,912,000 after buying an additional 112,815 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in Garmin by 40.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,775,154 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $664,540,000 after buying an additional 1,093,219 shares during the last quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN increased its position in Garmin by 3.6% during the third quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 1,401,004 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $246,619,000 after buying an additional 48,645 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors increased its position in Garmin by 4.1% during the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 767,729 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $135,143,000 after buying an additional 30,011 shares during the last quarter. 81.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.15, for a total value of $1,569,833.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 63,048 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,321,353.20. The trade was a 9.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total transaction of $366,270.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 27,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,743,019.88. This trade represents a 6.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 15,874 shares of company stock worth $3,571,966 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Stock Performance

NYSE GRMN opened at $223.98 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $214.66 and a 200 day simple moving average of $197.16. Garmin Ltd. has a twelve month low of $134.11 and a twelve month high of $246.50. The stock has a market cap of $43.09 billion, a PE ratio of 30.64, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.98.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.51. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The firm’s revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.72 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.61%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio is 41.04%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on GRMN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised 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 raised their price target on Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley raised Garmin to a “sell” rating and raised their price target for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Barclays raised 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. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Garmin currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $210.80.

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.