Financial Counselors Inc. Cuts Stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Financial Counselors Inc. lessened its stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 22.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,363 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 1,286 shares during the quarter. Financial Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Garmin were worth $900,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Passumpsic Savings Bank purchased a new stake in Garmin in the 3rd quarter worth $3,137,000. Diversified Trust Co purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin in the fourth quarter worth about $734,000. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. boosted its stake in Garmin by 42.5% during the fourth quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. now owns 431,188 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $88,937,000 after buying an additional 128,672 shares during the last quarter. Baskin Financial Services Inc. boosted its stake in Garmin by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Baskin Financial Services Inc. now owns 148,957 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $30,724,000 after buying an additional 4,616 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC grew its holdings in Garmin by 40.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,775,154 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $664,540,000 after buying an additional 1,093,219 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Stock Down 0.1 %

NYSE GRMN opened at $216.61 on Friday. Garmin Ltd. has a 52 week low of $138.86 and a 52 week high of $246.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.63, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a fifty day moving average of $217.34 and a two-hundred day moving average of $202.52.

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

Garmin Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.66%. Garmin’s payout ratio is 49.25%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GRMN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley raised Garmin to a “sell” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Barclays increased their price objective 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. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on shares of Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Garmin currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $210.80.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In other Garmin 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 value of $625,957.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,936 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,008,550.80. The trade was a 8.20 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.14, for a total transaction of $1,635,862.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 149,525 shares in the company, valued at $33,963,108.50. This represents a 4.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 24,342 shares of company stock worth $5,486,094. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.