2,218 Shares in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) Purchased by 1620 Investment Advisors Inc.

1620 Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 2,218 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $457,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Citigroup Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Garmin by 123.2% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 283,412 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $49,889,000 after purchasing an additional 156,441 shares in the last quarter. Passumpsic Savings Bank acquired a new stake in Garmin in the third quarter worth about $3,137,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Garmin by 24.2% in the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 17,529 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $3,086,000 after acquiring an additional 3,415 shares during the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co purchased a new stake in Garmin during the fourth quarter valued at about $734,000. Finally, Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. lifted its stake in Garmin by 42.5% during the fourth quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. now owns 431,188 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $88,937,000 after buying an additional 128,672 shares in the last quarter. 81.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Garmin news, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total value of $609,677.79. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 8,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,817,180.32. This represents a 25.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 2,763 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.55, for a total value of $625,957.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,936 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,008,550.80. The trade was a 8.20 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 24,342 shares of company stock valued at $5,486,094 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Garmin Stock Performance

NYSE:GRMN opened at $208.50 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $216.95 and a 200-day moving average price of $201.33. The company has a market cap of $40.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.52, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. Garmin Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $138.86 and a fifty-two week high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. Garmin had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 22.42%. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.72 EPS. Garmin’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

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 given a dividend of $0.90 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.73%. Garmin’s dividend 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.