Gabelli Funds LLC Purchases Shares of 1,000 Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Gabelli Funds LLC acquired a new stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 1,000 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $206,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Passumpsic Savings Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Garmin in the third quarter valued at about $3,137,000. Diversified Trust Co purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $734,000. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. lifted its position in shares of Garmin by 42.5% during the fourth quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. now owns 431,188 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $88,937,000 after purchasing an additional 128,672 shares in the last quarter. Baskin Financial Services Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Garmin by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Baskin Financial Services Inc. now owns 148,957 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $30,724,000 after purchasing an additional 4,616 shares during the period. Finally, Savant Capital LLC increased its stake in Garmin by 47.2% during the 4th quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 9,075 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,872,000 after buying an additional 2,910 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GRMN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upgraded Garmin to a “sell” rating and raised their target price for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Garmin from $260.00 to $220.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Tigress Financial raised their price target on shares of Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Three investment 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $202.80.

Garmin Stock Performance

NYSE:GRMN opened at $190.53 on Monday. Garmin Ltd. has a 1 year low of $139.65 and a 1 year high of $246.50. The business has a fifty day moving average of $209.00 and a 200-day moving average of $205.00. The stock has a market cap 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 (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.51. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion during 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%. Garmin’s revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.72 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at Garmin

In other Garmin news, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.15, for a total value of $1,569,833.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 63,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,321,353.20. The trade was a 9.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,525 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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. In the last quarter, insiders sold 24,342 shares of company stock valued at $5,486,094. 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.