Financial Counselors Inc. Trims Stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Financial Counselors Inc. reduced its holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN - Free Report) by 22.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,363 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock after selling 1,286 shares during the quarter. Financial Counselors Inc.'s holdings in Garmin were worth $900,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GRMN. Passumpsic Savings Bank bought a new position in shares of Garmin in the third quarter worth approximately $3,137,000. Diversified Trust Co purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin during the 4th quarter valued at $734,000. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 42.5% during the 4th quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. now owns 431,188 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $88,937,000 after acquiring an additional 128,672 shares during the last quarter. Baskin Financial Services Inc. grew its position in Garmin by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Baskin Financial Services Inc. now owns 148,957 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $30,724,000 after acquiring an additional 4,616 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC increased its stake in Garmin by 40.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,775,154 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $664,540,000 after acquiring an additional 1,093,219 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company's stock.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on GRMN. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Barclays increased their price target 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Garmin to a "sell" rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Garmin presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $210.80.

Garmin Price Performance

Garmin stock traded up $0.35 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $217.48. The company had a trading volume of 900,084 shares, compared to its average volume of 850,655. Garmin Ltd. has a 12-month low of $138.86 and a 12-month high of $246.50. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $217.34 and a 200 day moving average price of $203.59. The firm has a market cap of $41.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.75, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN - Get Free Report) last issued 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. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.72 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued 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 1.66%. Garmin's dividend payout ratio is currently 49.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $1,817,180.32. This trade represents a 25.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of the business'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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,525 shares in the company, valued at $33,963,108.50. This trade represents a 4.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 24,342 shares of company stock valued at $5,486,094 over the last ninety days. 19.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Garmin Company 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.