Commerce Bank Sells 4,612 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Commerce Bank lessened its position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN - Free Report) by 2.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 152,155 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock after selling 4,612 shares during the period. Commerce Bank owned 0.08% of Garmin worth $31,383,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Garmin by 1.2% in the fourth 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 acquiring an additional 215,344 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Garmin by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,438,796 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $913,544,000 after purchasing an additional 75,332 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Garmin in the 4th quarter worth approximately $396,184,000. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Garmin by 9.6% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,708,886 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $352,475,000 after buying an additional 149,210 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Garmin by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 889,838 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $183,538,000 after buying an additional 14,200 shares during the last quarter. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Garmin

In other news, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.15, for a total value of $1,569,833.65. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 63,048 shares in the company, valued at $14,321,353.20. The trade was a 9.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total value of $609,677.79. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,432 shares of the company's stock, 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 sold 24,342 shares of company stock valued at $5,486,094. 19.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Garmin Trading Up 2.5 %

NYSE GRMN traded up $4.89 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $198.72. The company's stock had a trading volume of 213,584 shares, compared to its average volume of 871,825. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $207.81 and its 200 day simple moving average is $204.95. Garmin Ltd. has a twelve month low of $140.46 and a twelve month high of $246.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $38.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.14, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.92.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN - Get Free Report) last posted 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.72 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a dividend of $0.90 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.81%. Garmin's payout ratio is 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.