Boston Partners Reduces Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Boston Partners trimmed its holdings in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 26.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 598,569 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 212,962 shares during the quarter. Boston Partners’ holdings in Garmin were worth $122,038,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin during the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Larson Financial Group LLC increased its position in shares of 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 worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 162 shares during the last quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin during the fourth quarter worth about $37,000. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new stake in Garmin in the third quarter valued at about $39,000. 81.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Garmin Trading Down 2.8 %

NYSE:GRMN opened at $206.47 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $39.73 billion, a PE ratio of 28.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $217.05 and a 200-day moving average of $201.23. Garmin Ltd. has a 52 week low of $138.86 and a 52 week high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last posted its earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 22.42%. The business’s revenue was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.72 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced 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. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.04%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley raised Garmin to a “sell” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Garmin has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $210.80.

Insider Activity

In other 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 transaction of $366,270.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares in the company, 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 filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 26,103 shares of company stock valued at $5,852,364. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Garmin

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.