Insider Selling: Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) CEO Sells 7,202 Shares of Stock

Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.14, for a total transaction of $1,635,862.28. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,525 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,963,108.50. This trade represents a 4.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Garmin Price Performance

NYSE:GRMN traded down $2.94 on Thursday, reaching $223.98. The stock had a trading volume of 884,639 shares, compared to its average volume of 843,242. The company has a market cap of $43.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.64, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.98. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $214.29 and its two-hundred day moving average is $196.97. Garmin Ltd. has a 12-month low of $134.11 and a 12-month high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last posted 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 firm 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.72 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.61%. Garmin’s payout ratio is 41.04%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Garmin

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GRMN. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Garmin in the 4th quarter valued at $396,184,000. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Garmin by 40.8% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,775,154 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $664,540,000 after purchasing an additional 1,093,219 shares in the last quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. acquired a new stake in Garmin in the 3rd quarter valued at $53,252,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Garmin by 20.2% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,708,495 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $352,394,000 after purchasing an additional 286,765 shares during the period. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Garmin by 1,580.3% during the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 287,283 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $50,570,000 after purchasing an additional 270,186 shares in the last quarter. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Tigress Financial increased their target price on shares of Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Barclays raised their price objective on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Garmin to a “sell” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, 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, February 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus 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.