TIAA Trust National Association Reduces Holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

TIAA Trust National Association lessened its holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 6.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,159 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 82 shares during the period. TIAA Trust National Association’s holdings in Garmin were worth $239,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. FMR LLC lifted its stake 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 buying an additional 1,093,219 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Garmin by 1,580.3% in the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 287,283 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $50,570,000 after acquiring an additional 270,186 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Garmin by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,067,708 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $3,726,645,000 after acquiring an additional 215,344 shares during the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its position in Garmin by 32.2% during the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 675,950 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $139,421,000 after purchasing an additional 164,818 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas raised its stake in Garmin by 79.3% in the 4th quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 361,490 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $74,561,000 after purchasing an additional 159,860 shares during the last quarter. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In other Garmin news, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,525 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total value of $609,677.79. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,817,180.32. The trade was a 25.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 24,342 shares of company stock valued at $5,486,094 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Stock Down 1.6 %

NYSE:GRMN opened at $213.59 on Friday. Garmin Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $138.86 and a fifty-two week high of $246.50. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $217.31 and its two-hundred day moving average is $202.73. The company has a market cap of $41.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its earnings results 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 firm had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 22.42%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.72 earnings per share. 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 of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.69%. Garmin’s payout ratio is 49.25%.

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.