Round Hill Asset Management Sells 4,490 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Round Hill Asset Management lessened its holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 21.7% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 16,174 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 4,490 shares during the period. Garmin makes up 2.4% of Round Hill Asset Management’s portfolio, making the stock its 12th biggest position. Round Hill Asset Management’s holdings in Garmin were worth $3,336,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. HighTower Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Garmin by 12.0% in the 3rd quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 54,922 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $9,672,000 after buying an additional 5,890 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its stake in Garmin by 5.7% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 19,564 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $3,444,000 after acquiring an additional 1,060 shares in the last quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 1.8% during the third quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 69,565 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $12,246,000 after acquiring an additional 1,243 shares during the period. Quantinno Capital Management LP boosted its stake in shares of Garmin by 34.1% in the 3rd quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 26,461 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $4,658,000 after purchasing an additional 6,734 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp grew its holdings in shares of Garmin by 19.7% in the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 36,387 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $6,406,000 after purchasing an additional 5,989 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Garmin Price Performance

Shares of Garmin stock opened at $178.18 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $216.05 and a 200 day simple moving average of $204.07. Garmin Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $138.86 and a fifty-two week high of $246.50. The firm has a market cap of $34.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released 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. Garmin had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 22.42%. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.72 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a dividend of $0.90 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.02%. Garmin’s payout ratio is presently 49.25%.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In other Garmin news, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of the firm’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 transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 63,048 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,321,353.20. This trade represents a 9.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.14, for a total value of $1,635,862.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,525 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,963,108.50. This trade represents a 4.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 24,342 shares of company stock worth $5,486,094 in the last quarter. 19.54% of the stock is owned by company 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.