Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd Purchases 121 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 864.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 135 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 121 shares during the period. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd’s holdings in Garmin were worth $28,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of GRMN. Waterloo Capital L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Garmin by 12.5% in the fourth quarter. Waterloo Capital L.P. now owns 3,141 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $648,000 after purchasing an additional 349 shares during the last quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp acquired a new position in Garmin in the 4th quarter valued at about $214,000. Wedbush Securities Inc. raised its holdings in Garmin by 14.2% in the 4th quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc. now owns 6,699 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,382,000 after acquiring an additional 833 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Garmin by 45.5% during the fourth quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 259,340 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $53,491,000 after acquiring an additional 81,157 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Aviva PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 12.4% during the fourth quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 95,521 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $19,702,000 after acquiring an additional 10,503 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on GRMN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on 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 lifted their target price for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Barclays upped their price target 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. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Garmin has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $210.80.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In other news, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was 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 directly owns 63,048 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,321,353.20. This represents a 9.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total value of $609,677.79. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,432 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,817,180.32. This trade represents a 25.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 24,342 shares of company stock valued at $5,486,094. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Garmin Stock Down 3.1 %

GRMN stock opened at $186.74 on Friday. Garmin Ltd. has a 52 week low of $138.86 and a 52 week high of $246.50. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $212.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $204.05. The company has a market cap of $35.93 billion, a PE ratio of 25.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.92.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.51. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.72 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.93%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s payout ratio is 49.25%.

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.