Columbia Asset Management Buys New Stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Columbia Asset Management purchased a new position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 1,000 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $206,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Garmin during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $396,184,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Garmin by 1,580.3% in the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 287,283 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $50,570,000 after buying an additional 270,186 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Garmin by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,067,708 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $3,726,645,000 after buying an additional 215,344 shares in the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH lifted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 32.2% in the fourth quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 675,950 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $139,421,000 after buying an additional 164,818 shares during the period. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas boosted its stake in Garmin by 79.3% during the fourth quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 361,490 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $74,561,000 after buying an additional 159,860 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on GRMN shares. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased 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. Morgan Stanley raised Garmin to a “sell” rating and upped their price target for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Garmin has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $210.80.

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In related news, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.14, for a total transaction of $1,635,862.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 149,525 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,963,108.50. This trade represents a 4.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.15, for a total value of $1,569,833.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 63,048 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,321,353.20. The trade was a 9.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 24,342 shares of company stock valued at $5,486,094 in the last 90 days. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Garmin Price Performance

GRMN stock opened at $217.48 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.75, 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. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $217.34 and its 200-day simple moving average is $203.59.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company’s revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.72 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed 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 of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.66%. Garmin’s payout ratio is presently 49.25%.

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.