Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. Invests $2.75 Million in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 13,330 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,749,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Garmin during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. purchased a new position in Garmin during the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. Larson Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in Garmin by 578.6% during the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 190 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 162 shares during the period. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. purchased a new stake in Garmin in the fourth quarter worth about $37,000. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. purchased a new stake in Garmin in the third quarter worth about $39,000. 81.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Garmin Stock Performance

GRMN stock opened at $212.43 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $217.09 and its 200-day moving average price is $201.06. Garmin Ltd. has a one year low of $138.86 and a one year high of $246.50. The company has a market capitalization of $40.87 billion, a PE ratio of 29.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96.

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

Garmin Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.69%. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.04%.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total transaction of $609,677.79. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,432 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,321,353.20. This represents a 9.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 26,103 shares of company stock worth $5,852,364. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.