Natixis Advisors LLC Reduces Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Natixis Advisors LLC cut its position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 3.3% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 32,414 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 1,117 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $6,686,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Garmin by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC now owns 6,357 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,311,000 after purchasing an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. Ironwood Investment Counsel LLC purchased a new position in shares of Garmin in the 4th quarter valued at $223,000. Madison Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Garmin in the 4th quarter valued at $904,000. Bowen Hanes & Co. Inc. grew its position in shares of Garmin by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Bowen Hanes & Co. Inc. now owns 225,365 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $46,484,000 after buying an additional 3,690 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Garmin in the 4th quarter valued at $2,749,000. 81.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on GRMN shares. Tigress Financial increased their target price on shares of Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and increased their target price for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective 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 assigned a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Garmin has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $210.80.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 2,763 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.55, for a total transaction of $625,957.65. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 30,936 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,008,550.80. The trade was a 8.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.15, for a total transaction of $1,569,833.65. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 63,048 shares in the company, 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. Insiders have sold a total of 24,342 shares of company stock valued at $5,486,094 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Stock Performance

Shares of Garmin stock opened at $208.50 on Friday. Garmin Ltd. has a 1 year low of $138.86 and a 1 year high of $246.50. The company has a market capitalization of $40.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.52, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. The company’s fifty day moving average is $216.95 and its two-hundred day moving average is $201.33.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.72 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The company 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 $0.90 dividend. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s payout ratio is 41.04%.

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.