JPMorgan Chase & Co. Sells 505,911 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered its holdings in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 18.8% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 2,181,457 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 505,911 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s holdings in Garmin were worth $449,947,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Garmin during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. purchased a new position in Garmin in the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its position in Garmin by 578.6% in the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 190 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 162 shares during the last quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new position in shares of Garmin in the third quarter worth approximately $39,000. Institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In other Garmin news, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total transaction of $609,677.79. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,432 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,817,180.32. This trade represents a 25.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,525 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,963,108.50. The trade was a 4.60 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 24,342 shares of company stock worth $5,486,094. 19.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Garmin Trading Down 1.6 %

GRMN opened at $213.59 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $41.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $217.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $202.89. Garmin Ltd. has a 12-month low of $138.86 and a 12-month high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.51. The company 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%. Garmin’s revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.72 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The business 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. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.25%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted 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. Tigress Financial raised their price target on Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, 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. 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $210.80.

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.