Deutsche Bank AG Grows Stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Deutsche Bank AG increased its holdings in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 5.3% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 506,675 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 25,640 shares during the quarter. Deutsche Bank AG’s holdings in Garmin were worth $104,507,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings 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 buying an additional 35,703 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Garmin by 3.1% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 199,713 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $35,155,000 after acquiring an additional 5,965 shares in the last quarter. Czech National Bank grew its holdings in shares of Garmin by 6.3% during the fourth quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 33,308 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $6,870,000 after purchasing an additional 1,984 shares during the last quarter. Westmount Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Garmin by 73.4% during the fourth quarter. Westmount Partners LLC now owns 2,363 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $487,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Eastern Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 50.0% in the 4th quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 1,500 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $309,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. 81.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on GRMN. Barclays cut their price target on Garmin from $188.00 to $152.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Garmin from $220.00 to $215.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Garmin from $159.00 to $172.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Three research 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, Garmin currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $194.80.

Garmin Price Performance

Garmin stock opened at $191.55 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $200.18 and a 200-day simple moving average of $207.52. Garmin Ltd. has a 12 month low of $158.38 and a 12 month high of $246.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $36.88 billion, a PE ratio of 26.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.99.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.61 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.62 by ($0.01). Garmin had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 22.42%. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.50 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.42 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Shareholders 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 1.88%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s payout ratio is 47.37%.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In related news, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.15, for a total transaction of $1,569,833.65. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 63,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,321,353.20. The trade was a 9.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 approximately $1,817,180.32. This trade represents a 25.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 24,342 shares of company stock valued at $5,486,094. Corporate insiders own 15.38% 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.