Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich Acquires New Holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich bought a new position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm bought 1,408 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $321,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Garmin by 8.5% during the 4th quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 6,161 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,271,000 after purchasing an additional 482 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Garmin during the fourth quarter worth $32,795,000. Arizona State Retirement System raised its holdings in shares of Garmin by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 44,663 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $9,212,000 after acquiring an additional 639 shares during the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin in the fourth quarter valued at $31,454,000. Finally, SPC Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Garmin during the fourth quarter valued at $219,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In other news, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 63,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,321,353.20. The trade was a 9.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 2,763 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.55, for a total transaction of $625,957.65. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,936 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,008,550.80. This trade represents a 8.20 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 23,274 shares of company stock valued at $5,242,686. Company insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Price Performance

NYSE GRMN opened at $215.11 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $216.43 and a 200-day moving average of $199.91. Garmin Ltd. has a 12 month low of $138.86 and a 12 month high of $246.50. The company has a market cap of $41.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.51. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 19.31%. Garmin’s revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.72 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate 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 issued a $0.90 dividend. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.67%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s payout ratio is currently 41.04%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently weighed in on GRMN shares. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on shares of Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Barclays upped 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, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price 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 assigned a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $210.80.

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.