CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co Has $50.86 Million Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co grew its position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 5.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 246,589 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 13,456 shares during the quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co’s holdings in Garmin were worth $50,855,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in GRMN. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. boosted its position in Garmin by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,863 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $591,000 after buying an additional 49 shares during the period. Curbstone Financial Management Corp grew its stake in shares of Garmin by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Curbstone Financial Management Corp now owns 3,886 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $802,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Garmin by 26.8% in the fourth quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 241 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $50,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Garmin by 11.1% in the fourth quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 522 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $108,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the period. Finally, HB Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Garmin by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,821 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $788,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on GRMN. Tigress Financial increased their price target on Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Garmin from $260.00 to $220.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Garmin has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $202.80.

Garmin Stock Performance

Garmin stock opened at $190.53 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $209.42 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $204.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $36.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.06, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.92. Garmin Ltd. has a 52-week low of $138.86 and a 52-week high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.51. Garmin had a net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.72 earnings per share. Garmin’s revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a $0.90 dividend. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s payout ratio is 49.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.15, for a total value of $1,569,833.65. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 63,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,321,353.20. This trade represents a 9.88 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.14, for a total value of $1,635,862.28. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,525 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,963,108.50. This represents a 4.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 24,342 shares of company stock worth $5,486,094. Corporate insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

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.