Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC Sells 6,321 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 23.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 20,395 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 6,321 shares during the period. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $4,207,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Garmin during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $396,184,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 1.2% during 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 acquiring an additional 215,344 shares during the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH grew its position in 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 worth $139,421,000 after acquiring an additional 164,818 shares in the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its stake in Garmin by 79.3% in 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 acquiring an additional 159,860 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Garmin during the fourth quarter valued at about $32,795,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Garmin

In related news, 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 sale, the vice president now owns 8,432 shares in the company, valued at $1,817,180.32. The trade was a 25.12 % 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, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 149,525 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,963,108.50. This trade represents a 4.60 % 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 worth $5,486,094 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on GRMN shares. Barclays increased their price objective on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their target price on shares of Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $210.80.

Garmin Price Performance

Shares of Garmin stock opened at $180.48 on Tuesday. Garmin Ltd. has a one year low of $138.86 and a one year high of $246.50. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $215.36 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $204.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $34.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.92.

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

Garmin Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced 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 of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.99%. 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.