Atria Investments Inc Trims Holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Atria Investments Inc decreased its holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 18.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 9,283 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 2,107 shares during the quarter. Atria Investments Inc’s holdings in Garmin were worth $1,915,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of GRMN. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its position in Garmin by 10.4% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 986 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $173,000 after purchasing an additional 93 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in Garmin by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 199,713 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $35,155,000 after purchasing an additional 5,965 shares during the last quarter. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in Garmin in the 3rd quarter valued at $59,000. Assetmark Inc. raised its position in Garmin by 24.6% in the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 8,005 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,409,000 after purchasing an additional 1,580 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. raised its position in Garmin by 14.7% during the 3rd quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 56,375 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $9,924,000 after buying an additional 7,236 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Garmin

In related news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total value of $366,270.39. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,743,019.88. This represents a 6.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.15, for a total transaction of $1,569,833.65. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 63,048 shares in the company, valued at $14,321,353.20. This represents a 9.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 23,274 shares of company stock valued at $5,242,686. Insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Tigress Financial upped their price objective 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 upgraded shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Garmin currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $210.80.

Garmin Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of GRMN opened at $219.51 on Monday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $216.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of $199.65. The company has a market capitalization of $42.23 billion, a PE ratio of 30.03, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. Garmin Ltd. has a 52-week low of $138.86 and a 52-week high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced its quarterly 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. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion during 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 business’s revenue was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.72 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a $0.90 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.64%. Garmin’s payout ratio is 41.04%.

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.