Meitav Investment House Ltd. Takes Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Meitav Investment House Ltd. bought a new stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm bought 3,149 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock, valued at approximately $653,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Creative Planning lifted its stake in shares of Garmin by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 34,736 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $6,115,000 after acquiring an additional 1,244 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Garmin by 111.7% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,319 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $215,000 after acquiring an additional 696 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in shares of Garmin by 172.4% in the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 48,351 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $8,511,000 after acquiring an additional 30,598 shares during the last quarter. Eastern Bank bought a new position in shares of Garmin in the 3rd quarter valued at $176,000. Finally, Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Garmin by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 4,314 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $759,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.60% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In other Garmin news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 27,612 shares in the company, valued at $5,743,019.88. This represents a 6.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 19.54% of the company's stock.

Garmin Stock Performance

Shares of GRMN stock traded down $4.34 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $224.67. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,072,638 shares, compared to its average volume of 838,615. The company has a market cap of $43.14 billion, a PE ratio of 30.73, a P/E/G ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.98. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $213.24 and its 200-day simple moving average is $195.07. Garmin Ltd. has a 52 week low of $131.20 and a 52 week high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 EPS 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 firm's revenue was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.72 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a $0.90 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.60%. Garmin's payout ratio is presently 41.04%.

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.