Schroder Investment Management Group Cuts Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Schroder Investment Management Group reduced its position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 48.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 105,793 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 100,011 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group owned approximately 0.06% of Garmin worth $21,948,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of GRMN. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Garmin in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Garmin in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin during the 4th quarter valued at about $37,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. acquired a new position in Garmin during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $39,000. Finally, Kentucky Trust Co purchased a new position in Garmin in the 4th quarter worth approximately $41,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. 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. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Barclays raised their target price on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on 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 assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Garmin has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $210.80.

Garmin Price Performance

NYSE GRMN opened at $218.24 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $217.38 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $203.69. The company has a market capitalization of $41.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.86, a price-to-earnings-growth 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.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last posted 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 return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 22.42%. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.72 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors 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 1.65%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Garmin news, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,432 shares in the company, valued at $1,817,180.32. The trade was a 25.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 63,048 shares of the company’s stock, 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. Insiders sold a total of 24,342 shares of company stock valued at $5,486,094 over the last 90 days. 19.54% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Garmin 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.