Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC lifted its position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 11.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 29,289 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,039 shares during the quarter. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $6,041,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Garmin during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Garmin by 864.3% during the fourth quarter. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd now owns 135 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 121 shares during the period. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. bought a new position in shares of Garmin in the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,000. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. bought a new stake in Garmin during the 4th quarter valued at $37,000. Finally, Kentucky Trust Co bought a new stake in Garmin during the 4th quarter valued at $41,000. 81.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Garmin from $260.00 to $220.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Tigress Financial upped their price target on Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Garmin to a “sell” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $202.80.

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In other news, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of the business’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 transaction of $609,677.79. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,432 shares of the company’s stock, 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of the firm’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 transaction of $1,635,862.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 149,525 shares in the company, valued at $33,963,108.50. This represents a 4.60 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 24,342 shares of company stock worth $5,486,094. 19.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Garmin Stock Performance

Shares of GRMN opened at $204.48 on Wednesday. Garmin Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $144.41 and a fifty-two week high of $246.50. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $205.90 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $206.22. The stock has a market cap of $39.39 billion, a PE ratio of 27.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.92.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share 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 return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 22.42%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.72 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.76%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.