Wealthfront Advisers LLC Grows Stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Wealthfront Advisers LLC raised its stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 10.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 29,082 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,778 shares during the quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $5,998,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its position in 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 valued at $591,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the period. Curbstone Financial Management Corp raised its position in 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 valued at $802,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its position in Garmin by 26.8% in the fourth quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 241 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the period. Addison Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Garmin by 11.1% during the fourth quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 522 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $108,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. Finally, HB Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Garmin by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,821 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $788,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. 81.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on GRMN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Garmin to a “sell” rating and raised their target price for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research note 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, Tigress Financial raised their target price on Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Three investment 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 MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $210.80.

Garmin Stock Performance

NYSE:GRMN opened at $215.78 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $41.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. Garmin Ltd. has a one year low of $138.86 and a one year high of $246.50. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $216.76 and a 200 day simple moving average of $200.26.

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. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 22.42%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.72 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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 is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.67%. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio is currently 41.04%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Garmin news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total value of $366,270.39. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 27,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,743,019.88. This trade represents a 6.00 % 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, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total transaction 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. This represents a 25.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 26,103 shares of company stock valued at $5,852,364 over the last quarter. Insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Company 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.