Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Decreases Stock Holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP trimmed its position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN - Free Report) by 6.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,556,814 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock after selling 110,890 shares during the quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned about 0.81% of Garmin worth $321,126,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Passumpsic Savings Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin during the third quarter valued at $3,137,000. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin in the 3rd quarter valued at $501,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in Garmin during the third quarter valued at approximately $185,000. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in Garmin by 35.8% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 135,477 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $22,755,000 after buying an additional 35,703 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Garmin by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 199,713 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $35,155,000 after buying an additional 5,965 shares during the period. 81.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on GRMN shares. Tigress Financial raised their price objective 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Garmin from $260.00 to $220.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Morgan Stanley raised Garmin to a "sell" rating and raised their price target for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Garmin presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $202.80.

Garmin Stock Down 0.1 %

NYSE GRMN traded down $0.29 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $198.82. The company had a trading volume of 561,195 shares, compared to its average volume of 873,415. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $207.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $205.20. The stock has a market cap of $38.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.20, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.92. Garmin Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $140.46 and a fifty-two week high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.51. Garmin had a net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.72 EPS. Garmin's revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a $0.90 dividend. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Garmin's dividend payout ratio is currently 49.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In other news, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of the firm's 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 transaction, the vice president now owns 8,432 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,817,180.32. This trade represents a 25.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.15, for a total transaction 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 approximately $14,321,353.20. The trade was a 9.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 24,342 shares of company stock worth $5,486,094 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 19.54% of the company's stock.

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.