Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) Shares Bought by Paradigm Asset Management Co. LLC

Paradigm Asset Management Co. LLC grew its stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 45.6% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 8,300 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 2,600 shares during the quarter. Paradigm Asset Management Co. LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $1,712,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Garmin by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,912,536 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,216,819,000 after acquiring an additional 134,303 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Garmin by 2.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,363,464 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $765,912,000 after buying an additional 112,815 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in Garmin by 40.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,775,154 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $664,540,000 after buying an additional 1,093,219 shares during the period. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN lifted its stake in Garmin by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 1,401,004 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $246,619,000 after acquiring an additional 48,645 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its position in Garmin by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 767,729 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $135,143,000 after acquiring an additional 30,011 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Price Performance

Shares of Garmin stock opened at $228.61 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $43.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.27, a P/E/G ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin Ltd. has a 52-week low of $128.89 and a 52-week high of $246.50. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $212.99 and a 200-day simple moving average of $194.84.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.51. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 22.42%. The firm’s revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.72 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

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 paid a $0.90 dividend. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s payout ratio is 41.04%.

Insider Activity at Garmin

In related news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total value of $366,270.39. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,743,019.88. This trade represents a 6.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 19.54% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on GRMN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. 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. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their price target on shares of Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $195.67.

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.