California Public Employees Retirement System Has $138.75 Million Stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

California Public Employees Retirement System trimmed its stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN - Free Report) by 6.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 672,697 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock after selling 43,449 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned approximately 0.35% of Garmin worth $138,750,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in shares of Garmin by 229.2% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 24,203 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $4,992,000 after purchasing an additional 16,850 shares during the last quarter. Allianz SE acquired a new position in Garmin during the fourth quarter worth approximately $172,000. QSV Equity Investors LLC bought a new stake in Garmin in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $225,000. Allstate Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Garmin in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $933,000. Finally, DnB Asset Management AS boosted its stake in shares of Garmin by 5.3% during the 4th quarter. DnB Asset Management AS now owns 29,272 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $6,038,000 after acquiring an additional 1,478 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.60% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GRMN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upgraded Garmin to a "sell" rating and increased their price target for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on shares of Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Three 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 data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $210.80.

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Garmin Stock Performance

Shares of GRMN stock traded down $5.12 on Friday, hitting $180.22. The company's stock had a trading volume of 834,690 shares, compared to its average volume of 860,488. Garmin Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $138.86 and a fifty-two week high of $246.50. The company has a market capitalization of $34.68 billion, a PE ratio of 24.74, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. The stock's 50 day moving average is $216.77 and its 200-day moving average is $203.57.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.51. Garmin had a net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.70 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.72 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current 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 dividend of $0.90 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.00%. Garmin's payout ratio is 49.25%.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In related news, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.14, for a total value of $1,635,862.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 149,525 shares in the company, valued at $33,963,108.50. This trade represents a 4.60 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of the business'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 sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,432 shares in the company, valued at $1,817,180.32. The trade was a 25.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 24,342 shares of company stock valued at $5,486,094. 19.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.