SPC Financial Inc. Purchases New Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

SPC Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund purchased 1,062 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $219,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Garmin during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. bought a new stake in Garmin during the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. Larson Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in Garmin by 578.6% during the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 190 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 162 shares during the last quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. bought a new stake in Garmin during the 4th quarter worth approximately $37,000. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new stake in Garmin during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $39,000. 81.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on GRMN. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on shares of Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, 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. Three equities research 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.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $210.80.

Garmin Stock Up 2.2 %

Garmin stock opened at $224.97 on Thursday. Garmin Ltd. has a 12-month low of $138.86 and a 12-month high of $246.50. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $215.85 and its 200 day moving average is $198.87. The company has a market capitalization of $43.29 billion, a PE ratio of 30.78, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.98.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its 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. Garmin had a net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.72 EPS. Garmin’s quarterly revenue was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.60%. Garmin’s payout ratio is presently 41.04%.

Insider Activity at Garmin

In other Garmin news, Director Matthew Munn sold 4,637 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $225.31, for a total transaction of $1,044,762.47. Following the transaction, the director now owns 11,450 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,579,799.50. This represents a 28.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.15, for a total transaction of $1,569,833.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 63,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,321,353.20. This represents a 9.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 23,274 shares of company stock worth $5,242,686 in the last quarter. Company 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.