Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund Acquires 55 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund raised its stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 0.4% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 13,185 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 55 shares during the period. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund’s holdings in Garmin were worth $2,720,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Garmin during the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. bought a new position in Garmin during the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. Larson Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 162 shares during the last quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. purchased a new stake in Garmin in the 4th quarter worth about $37,000. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. purchased a new stake in Garmin in the 3rd quarter worth about $39,000. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In other Garmin news, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.15, for a total transaction of $1,569,833.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 63,048 shares in the company, valued at $14,321,353.20. The trade was a 9.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total transaction of $366,270.39. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 27,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,743,019.88. The trade was a 6.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 15,874 shares of company stock valued at $3,571,966 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on GRMN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Garmin to a “sell” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their target price on Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Three research 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. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $210.80.

Garmin Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE:GRMN opened at $223.98 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $214.66 and a 200 day moving average of $197.16. The stock has a market cap of $43.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin Ltd. has a 12 month low of $134.11 and a 12 month high of $246.50.

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

Garmin Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a $0.90 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.61%. Garmin’s payout ratio is currently 41.04%.

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.