Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) Position Raised by Vanguard Group Inc.

Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN - Free Report) by 1.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 18,067,708 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock after purchasing an additional 215,344 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 9.41% of Garmin worth $3,726,645,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Garmin in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. purchased a new position in Garmin in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. acquired a new stake in Garmin during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Larson Financial Group LLC grew its stake 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 valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 162 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kentucky Trust Co purchased a new stake in Garmin during the 4th quarter worth approximately $41,000. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GRMN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Tigress Financial raised their price target 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. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Garmin to a "sell" rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $210.80.

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Garmin Stock Performance

Shares of Garmin stock traded down $3.37 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $213.59. The company's stock had a trading volume of 608,540 shares, compared to its average volume of 848,723. Garmin Ltd. has a one year low of $138.86 and a one year high of $246.50. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $217.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $202.73. The stock has a market cap of $41.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.22, a price-to-earnings-growth 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, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.51. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 22.42%. Garmin's quarterly revenue was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.72 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a $0.90 dividend. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Garmin's payout ratio is 49.25%.

Insider Activity

In other Garmin news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 2,763 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.55, for a total transaction of $625,957.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 30,936 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,008,550.80. The trade was a 8.20 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 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 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. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 24,342 shares of company stock valued at $5,486,094. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.