Geode Capital Management LLC Has $913.54 Million Holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 1.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 4,438,796 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 75,332 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $913,544,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of GRMN. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Garmin during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $396,184,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its stake in Garmin by 1,580.3% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 287,283 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $50,570,000 after purchasing an additional 270,186 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Garmin by 1.2% during the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH lifted its stake 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its holdings in shares of 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 during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Stock Up 0.3 %

GRMN opened at $218.24 on Thursday. Garmin Ltd. has a twelve month low of $138.86 and a twelve month high of $246.50. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $217.38 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $203.69. The stock has a market cap of $41.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.86, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.51. Garmin had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 22.42%. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.72 earnings per share. Garmin’s revenue was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The company 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. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In other Garmin news, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of the 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 149,525 shares in the company, valued at $33,963,108.50. This represents a 4.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total value of $609,677.79. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 8,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,817,180.32. This trade represents a 25.12 % 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 over the last three months. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GRMN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley raised Garmin to a “sell” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Garmin currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $210.80.

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.