Ostrum Asset Management Decreases Holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Ostrum Asset Management cut its holdings in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 39.3% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 334 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 216 shares during the period. Ostrum Asset Management’s holdings in Garmin were worth $69,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Garmin during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd raised its position in shares of Garmin by 864.3% in the 4th quarter. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd now owns 135 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 121 shares during the last quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. acquired a new stake in Garmin in the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. purchased a new stake in Garmin during the 4th quarter worth approximately $37,000. Finally, Kentucky Trust Co acquired a new position in Garmin during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In other news, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total transaction of $609,677.79. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,817,180.32. This represents a 25.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Matthew Munn sold 4,637 shares of Garmin 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 completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 11,450 shares in the company, valued at $2,579,799.50. This represents a 28.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 24,342 shares of company stock valued at $5,486,094. Corporate insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on GRMN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Garmin from $260.00 to $220.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Tigress Financial boosted their price target on Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Barclays raised their price objective on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded Garmin to a “sell” rating and upped their target price for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Garmin has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $202.80.

Garmin Stock Performance

NYSE GRMN opened at $187.02 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $35.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.58, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.92. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $208.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $205.12. Garmin Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $139.65 and a fifty-two week high of $246.50.

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

Garmin Announces Dividend

The company 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 dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.