Navellier & Associates Inc. Invests $1.59 Million in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Navellier & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 7,692 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,587,000.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Garmin by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,863 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $591,000 after buying an additional 49 shares during the period. Curbstone Financial Management Corp increased its holdings in shares of Garmin by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Curbstone Financial Management Corp now owns 3,886 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $802,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. HB Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Garmin by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,821 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $788,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the period. Outlook Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Garmin by 2.6% in the fourth quarter. Outlook Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,332 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $481,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. Finally, MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB increased its holdings in shares of Garmin by 8.5% in the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 804 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $166,000 after buying an additional 63 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Stock Performance

Garmin stock opened at $224.67 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $213.43 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $195.51. The stock has a market cap of $43.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.73, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $131.20 and a fifty-two week high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.51. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion for 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 business’s revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.72 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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 of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.60%. Garmin’s payout ratio is 41.04%.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In other news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total value of $366,270.39. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,743,019.88. The trade was a 6.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on GRMN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. 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 note on Tuesday, February 11th. Tigress Financial raised their target price on Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Three 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $206.80.

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.