Swiss National Bank Has $89.60 Million Holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Swiss National Bank cut its holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 4.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 434,400 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 21,600 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in Garmin were worth $89,599,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Assetmark Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Garmin by 24.6% during the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 8,005 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,409,000 after acquiring an additional 1,580 shares in the last quarter. Haverford Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of Garmin during the third quarter valued at approximately $229,000. KBC Group NV increased its holdings in shares of Garmin by 560.8% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 203,713 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $35,860,000 after acquiring an additional 172,883 shares in the last quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Garmin by 6.8% during the third quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 9,554 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,682,000 after acquiring an additional 606 shares in the last quarter. Finally, OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Garmin by 11.0% during the third quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,318 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,288,000 after buying an additional 725 shares in the last quarter. 81.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Tigress Financial upped their price target on Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Barclays upped their price target on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Garmin to a “sell” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $210.80.

Garmin Trading Up 2.2 %

GRMN stock opened at $214.00 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $216.99 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $200.56. Garmin Ltd. has a 1-year low of $138.86 and a 1-year high of $246.50. The stock has a market cap of $41.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.28, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. Garmin had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 22.42%. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.72 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 given a dividend of $0.90 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.68%. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio is presently 41.04%.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total transaction of $609,677.79. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 8,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,817,180.32. This represents a 25.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total value of $366,270.39. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares in the company, valued at $5,743,019.88. This trade represents a 6.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 26,103 shares of company stock valued at $5,852,364 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Company 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.