Paloma Partners Management Co Buys New Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Paloma Partners Management Co purchased a new position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 7,505 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,117,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of GRMN. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Garmin during the 4th quarter worth $54,460,000. M&G Plc purchased a new position in shares of Garmin during the 1st quarter valued at $38,727,000. SW Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Garmin during the 4th quarter valued at $28,279,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Garmin by 28.4% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 862,527 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $110,869,000 after buying an additional 190,739 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its holdings in Garmin by 153.8% in the 4th quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 291,918 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $37,737,000 after acquiring an additional 176,908 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.41% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In other Garmin news, EVP Patrick Desbois sold 4,126 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.52, for a total value of $674,683.52. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 58,412 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,551,530.24. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 2,350 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.63, for a total value of $379,830.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 28,010 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,527,256.30. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Patrick Desbois sold 4,126 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $163.52, for a total transaction of $674,683.52. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 58,412 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,551,530.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 19.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on the stock. Bank of America downgraded shares of Garmin from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $165.00 to $150.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 22nd. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Garmin from $140.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on shares of Garmin from $175.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Garmin from $155.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Garmin presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $156.83.

Garmin Stock Down 0.8 %

NYSE:GRMN traded down $1.38 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $176.56. 758,459 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 846,211. The stock has a market capitalization of $33.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.90, a PEG ratio of 3.83 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin Ltd. has a 52 week low of $99.61 and a 52 week high of $178.51. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $164.93 and its two-hundred day moving average is $149.48.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.42 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.42. The company had revenue of $1.38 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.25 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 24.96% and a return on equity of 17.26%. The firm’s revenue was up 20.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.02 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 5.77 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.70%. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.31%.

Garmin 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.