Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) Shares Sold by New York State Common Retirement Fund

New York State Common Retirement Fund lessened its stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 6.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 178,811 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 12,400 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned 0.09% of Garmin worth $36,882,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of GRMN. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Garmin by 40.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,775,154 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $664,540,000 after acquiring an additional 1,093,219 shares in the last quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Garmin in the third quarter worth about $53,252,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its stake 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 worth $50,570,000 after acquiring an additional 270,186 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its stake in shares of Garmin by 123.8% in the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 486,281 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $85,600,000 after acquiring an additional 268,996 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV lifted its stake in shares of Garmin by 560.8% in the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 203,713 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $35,860,000 after acquiring an additional 172,883 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total transaction of $366,270.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,743,019.88. This represents a 6.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on GRMN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Morgan Stanley raised Garmin to a “sell” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $195.67.

Garmin Stock Down 5.5 %

Shares of Garmin stock opened at $228.61 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $43.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.01, a P/E/G ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $128.89 and a fifty-two week high of $246.50. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $212.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $194.84.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last posted 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 analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 17.99% and a net margin of 25.48%. The business’s revenue was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.72 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.07%.

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.