Ieq Capital LLC Increases Stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Ieq Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN - Free Report) by 628.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 33,928 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock after purchasing an additional 29,271 shares during the quarter. Ieq Capital LLC's holdings in Garmin were worth $6,998,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. purchased a new stake in Garmin during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its position in Garmin by 578.6% during the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 190 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 162 shares during the period. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. acquired a new position in shares of Garmin in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin during the third quarter worth approximately $39,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.60% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on GRMN shares. Barclays lifted 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. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on shares of Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Garmin to a "sell" rating and raised their price objective for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $195.67.

Garmin Trading Down 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE:GRMN traded down $4.34 on Friday, reaching $224.67. 1,072,638 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 838,615. The company has a 50-day moving average of $213.24 and a 200-day moving average of $195.07. The firm has a market cap of $43.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin Ltd. has a 1-year low of $131.20 and a 1-year high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.70 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.72 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast 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 given a dividend of $0.90 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.60%. Garmin's payout ratio is 41.04%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In other news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total transaction of $366,270.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,743,019.88. This trade represents a 6.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 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.