California Public Employees Retirement System Sells 43,449 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

California Public Employees Retirement System lessened its stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 6.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 672,697 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 43,449 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned about 0.35% of Garmin worth $138,750,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Garmin in the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. bought a new position in shares of Garmin during the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Garmin by 578.6% in the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 190 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 162 shares during the last quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. bought a new stake in shares of Garmin in the fourth quarter worth $37,000. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. purchased a new stake in Garmin during the third quarter valued at $39,000. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Garmin Trading Down 1.6 %

Garmin stock opened at $213.59 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. Garmin Ltd. has a 12-month low of $138.86 and a 12-month high of $246.50. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $217.31 and a 200 day moving average of $203.03.

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

Garmin Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s payout ratio is currently 49.25%.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In other Garmin news, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.14, for a total value of $1,635,862.28. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 149,525 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,963,108.50. The trade was a 4.60 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.15, for a total value of $1,569,833.65. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 63,048 shares in the company, valued at $14,321,353.20. This trade represents a 9.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 24,342 shares of company stock valued at $5,486,094. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.