Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) Shares Acquired by Independent Advisor Alliance

Independent Advisor Alliance increased its holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 23.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 2,246 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 428 shares during the quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance’s holdings in Garmin were worth $463,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Citigroup Inc. raised its holdings in Garmin by 123.2% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 283,412 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $49,889,000 after purchasing an additional 156,441 shares during the period. Passumpsic Savings Bank purchased a new stake in Garmin during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $3,137,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Garmin by 24.2% during the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 17,529 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $3,086,000 after buying an additional 3,415 shares in the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co purchased a new stake in Garmin during the 4th quarter worth approximately $734,000. Finally, Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. increased its stake in Garmin by 42.5% during the 4th quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. now owns 431,188 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $88,937,000 after buying an additional 128,672 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on GRMN shares. 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded Garmin to a “sell” rating and upped their price target for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Three investment 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.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $210.80.

Garmin Price Performance

GRMN stock opened at $212.43 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $217.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $201.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.87 billion, a PE ratio of 29.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. Garmin Ltd. has a 1 year low of $138.86 and a 1 year high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.51. Garmin had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 22.42%. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.72 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a $0.90 dividend. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio is presently 41.04%.

Insider Activity at Garmin

In other Garmin news, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 63,048 shares in the company, valued at $14,321,353.20. This represents a 9.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, 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 transaction, the vice president now owns 8,432 shares in the company, valued at $1,817,180.32. This trade represents a 25.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 26,103 shares of company stock worth $5,852,364. 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.