Farringdon Capital Ltd. Takes Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Farringdon Capital Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 3,149 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock, valued at approximately $650,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Garmin in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd lifted its holdings in Garmin by 864.3% in the 4th quarter. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd now owns 135 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 121 shares in the last quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin during the fourth quarter worth $29,000. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. purchased a new position in shares of Garmin in the fourth quarter worth about $37,000. Finally, Kentucky Trust Co purchased a new stake in Garmin during the 4th quarter valued at about $41,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.60% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on GRMN. Tigress Financial increased their price target on Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Garmin from $260.00 to $220.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of 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. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Three equities research 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 company. According to MarketBeat, Garmin has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $202.80.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Garmin news, 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 value of $609,677.79. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,525 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $33,963,108.50. This trade represents a 4.60 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 24,342 shares of company stock worth $5,486,094 in the last ninety days. 19.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Garmin Stock Performance

GRMN stock traded up $4.83 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $191.66. The company had a trading volume of 123,027 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,007,888. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $208.55 and a 200 day simple moving average of $205.12. Garmin Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $140.46 and a fifty-two week high of $246.50. The company has a market capitalization of $36.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.92.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The company's revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.72 EPS. As a group, analysts predict 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. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a $0.90 dividend. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.88%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Garmin's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.