Teacher Retirement System of Texas Has $74.56 Million Stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 79.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 361,490 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 159,860 shares during the quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Garmin were worth $74,561,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Garmin by 2.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,912,536 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,216,819,000 after purchasing an additional 134,303 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Garmin by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,363,464 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $765,912,000 after buying an additional 112,815 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Garmin by 40.8% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,775,154 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $664,540,000 after acquiring an additional 1,093,219 shares during the period. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN lifted its position in Garmin by 3.6% during the 3rd 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 acquiring an additional 48,645 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Garmin by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 889,838 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $183,538,000 after acquiring an additional 14,200 shares during the period. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley raised Garmin to a “sell” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Barclays lifted their price target on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Tigress Financial increased their price objective on Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $210.80.

Garmin Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of GRMN stock opened at $208.90 on Thursday. Garmin Ltd. has a 12 month low of $138.86 and a 12 month high of $246.50. The company has a market capitalization of $40.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $217.00 and a two-hundred day moving average of $201.28.

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

Garmin Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a $0.90 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.72%. Garmin’s payout ratio is currently 41.04%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Garmin news, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total value of $609,677.79. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,432 shares in the company, valued at $1,817,180.32. This represents a 25.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total value of $366,270.39. Following 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 26,103 shares of company stock valued at $5,852,364 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

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.