Garmin Ltd. (GRMN) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.75 on March 28th

Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 21st, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of 0.75 per share by the scientific and technical instruments company on Friday, March 28th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.41%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th.

Garmin has raised its dividend payment by an average of 4.4% per year over the last three years. Garmin has a payout ratio of 35.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Garmin to earn $7.98 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 37.6%.

Garmin Price Performance

Shares of GRMN stock opened at $213.48 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. The business has a fifty day moving average of $216.57 and a 200 day moving average of $200.15. Garmin has a 1 year low of $138.86 and a 1 year high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 company’s revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.72 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Garmin will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In other Garmin news, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.15, for a total value of $1,569,833.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 63,048 shares in the company, valued at $14,321,353.20. This represents a 9.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.14, for a total transaction 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 $33,963,108.50. The trade was a 4.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 26,103 shares of company stock valued at $5,852,364. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in Garmin stock. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 31.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,943 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 463 shares during the quarter. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $401,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC. 81.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.