Altshuler Shaham Ltd Has $387,000 Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Altshuler Shaham Ltd lessened its position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 31.7% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,877 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 873 shares during the quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd’s holdings in Garmin were worth $387,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GRMN. Passumpsic Savings Bank bought a new stake in shares of Garmin in the third quarter worth $3,137,000. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in Garmin during the third quarter valued at approximately $501,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new position in shares of Garmin in the third quarter valued at $185,000. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in shares of Garmin by 35.8% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 135,477 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $22,755,000 after acquiring an additional 35,703 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Garmin by 3.1% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 199,713 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $35,155,000 after buying an additional 5,965 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Garmin Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:GRMN opened at $189.26 on Thursday. Garmin Ltd. has a 1 year low of $138.86 and a 1 year high of $246.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $36.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.92. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $209.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $204.31.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued 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 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 company had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.72 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 in the company, valued at $1,817,180.32. This trade represents a 25.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 2,763 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.55, for a total value of $625,957.65. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,936 shares in the company, valued at $7,008,550.80. The trade was a 8.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 24,342 shares of company stock worth $5,486,094 in the last three months. 19.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.