Lbp Am Sa Cuts Stock Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Lbp Am Sa lowered its position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 37.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 13,297 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 7,979 shares during the period. Lbp Am Sa’s holdings in Garmin were worth $2,743,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GRMN. Citigroup Inc. grew its position in Garmin by 123.2% during 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 last quarter. Passumpsic Savings Bank purchased a new stake in Garmin during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $3,137,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its position 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 purchasing an additional 3,415 shares during 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. grew its position 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 purchasing an additional 128,672 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Garmin

In related news, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.15, for a total value of $1,569,833.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 63,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,321,353.20. The trade was a 9.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,525 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,963,108.50. The trade was a 4.60 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 26,103 shares of company stock worth $5,852,364 in the last three months. Company insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GRMN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. 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 research report on Wednesday, February 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $210.80.

Garmin Price Performance

GRMN opened at $214.00 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $216.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $200.69. Garmin Ltd. has a 1 year low of $138.86 and a 1 year high of $246.50. The stock has a market cap of $41.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.28, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 business posted $1.72 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The company 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. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio is currently 41.04%.

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.