Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) Position Cut by New York State Common Retirement Fund

New York State Common Retirement Fund trimmed its holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 6.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 178,811 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 12,400 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Garmin were worth $36,882,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in GRMN. Creative Planning grew its holdings in Garmin by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 34,736 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $6,115,000 after buying an additional 1,244 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in Garmin by 111.7% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,319 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $215,000 after purchasing an additional 696 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its position in Garmin by 172.4% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 48,351 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $8,511,000 after purchasing an additional 30,598 shares during the period. Eastern Bank acquired a new stake in Garmin in the third quarter worth approximately $176,000. Finally, Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its position in Garmin by 2.0% in the third quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 4,314 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $759,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the period. 81.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Garmin

In other Garmin news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total transaction of $366,270.39. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,743,019.88. This trade represents a 6.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Barclays upped their target price on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley upgraded Garmin to a “sell” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their price objective on Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $195.67.

Garmin Stock Down 5.5 %

NYSE:GRMN opened at $228.61 on Friday. Garmin Ltd. has a 1-year low of $128.89 and a 1-year high of $246.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 0.98. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $212.99 and a 200 day simple moving average of $194.84.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released 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. Garmin had a return on equity of 17.99% and a net margin of 25.48%. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.72 EPS. Garmin’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.09 earnings per share for the current 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 given a $0.90 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.57%. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.07%.

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.