Wells Fargo & Company MN Has $228.64 Million Stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Wells Fargo & Company MN reduced its holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 4.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,108,512 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 53,722 shares during the quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN’s holdings in Garmin were worth $228,642,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its holdings in Garmin by 11.7% during the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 6,682 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,176,000 after acquiring an additional 700 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Garmin by 12.0% during the third quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 54,922 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $9,672,000 after purchasing an additional 5,890 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its holdings in shares of Garmin by 5.7% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 19,564 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $3,444,000 after purchasing an additional 1,060 shares in the last quarter. Investment Management Corp of Ontario lifted its holdings in Garmin by 50.5% during the 3rd quarter. Investment Management Corp of Ontario now owns 5,069 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $892,000 after buying an additional 1,700 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Royal London Asset Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in Garmin by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 69,565 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $12,246,000 after buying an additional 1,243 shares in the last quarter. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on GRMN. Barclays raised their price target on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Tigress Financial boosted their price target on shares of Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective 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. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Garmin currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $210.80.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In other news, Director Matthew Munn sold 4,637 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $225.31, for a total value of $1,044,762.47. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 11,450 shares in the company, valued at $2,579,799.50. The trade was a 28.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total value of $609,677.79. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 8,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,817,180.32. The trade was 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 90 days. 19.54% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Garmin Trading Down 3.9 %

Garmin stock opened at $178.18 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $34.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.37, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. The business has a 50-day moving average of $216.05 and a 200-day moving average of $203.83. Garmin Ltd. has a 1 year low of $138.86 and a 1 year high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. Garmin had a net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.72 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The firm 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. 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 2.02%. Garmin’s payout ratio is 49.25%.

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.