Allstate Corp Acquires New Holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Allstate Corp 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 Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 4,523 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock, valued at approximately $933,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Garmin by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,067,708 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $3,726,645,000 after purchasing an additional 215,344 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position in Garmin by 2.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,912,536 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $1,216,819,000 after buying an additional 134,303 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Garmin by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,363,464 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $765,912,000 after buying an additional 112,815 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Garmin in the 4th quarter valued at about $396,184,000. Finally, Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN increased its stake in shares of Garmin by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 1,401,004 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $246,619,000 after acquiring an additional 48,645 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.60% of the company's stock.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Garmin Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:GRMN traded down $32.79 during trading on Thursday, hitting $185.28. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,809,956 shares, compared to its average volume of 859,120. The company has a market capitalization of $35.65 billion, a PE ratio of 25.35, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. Garmin Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $138.86 and a fifty-two week high of $246.50. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $217.38 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $203.69.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.72 EPS. Garmin's quarterly revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

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 given a $0.90 dividend. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Garmin's payout ratio is currently 49.25%.

Insider Activity

In other Garmin news, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were 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 owns 63,048 shares of the company's stock, valued at $14,321,353.20. The trade was a 9.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total transaction of $609,677.79. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 8,432 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,817,180.32. The trade was a 25.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 24,342 shares of company stock worth $5,486,094. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Garmin 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.