Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) Shares Bought by Daiwa Securities Group Inc.

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 6.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 20,134 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,257 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Garmin were worth $4,153,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Garmin in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin during the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Larson Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Garmin by 578.6% during the third 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 in the last quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. acquired a new stake in shares of Garmin in the fourth quarter valued at about $37,000. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. purchased a new position in shares of Garmin in the third quarter worth about $39,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on GRMN shares. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley raised Garmin to a “sell” rating and increased their price target for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Tigress Financial upped their target price on Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Three investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $210.80.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total transaction of $366,270.39. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,525 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,963,108.50. This represents a 4.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 26,103 shares of company stock valued at $5,852,364 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GRMN opened at $215.78 on Thursday. Garmin Ltd. has a 1 year low of $138.86 and a 1 year high of $246.50. The company has a market capitalization of $41.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.52, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $216.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $200.26.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.51. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion during 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 revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.72 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed 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 dividend yield of 1.67%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 41.04%.

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.