Sentry Investment Management LLC Has $104,000 Stock Holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Sentry Investment Management LLC reduced its position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 9.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 806 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 87 shares during the quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $104,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of GRMN. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Garmin by 2.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,276,118 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $2,049,121,000 after acquiring an additional 365,713 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. boosted its holdings in Garmin by 1.6% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 15,034,948 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,517,327,000 after buying an additional 239,988 shares during the last quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership grew its position in shares of Garmin by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 7,246,834 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $762,367,000 after buying an additional 176,510 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Garmin by 5.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,798,228 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $545,971,000 after acquiring an additional 355,087 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Garmin by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,433,511 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $345,772,000 after acquiring an additional 70,082 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.41% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:GRMN opened at $141.02 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $139.83 and a 200 day simple moving average of $125.92. The company has a market capitalization of $27.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.66 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin Ltd. has a 52-week low of $94.89 and a 52-week high of $149.54.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.72 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.40 by $0.32. Garmin had a return on equity of 16.60% and a net margin of 24.67%. The company had revenue of $1.48 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.41 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.35 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 5.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Garmin’s payout ratio is 43.52%.

Insider Activity at Garmin

In other Garmin news, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,587 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.18, for a total transaction of $349,710.66. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 7,174 shares in the company, valued at $969,781.32. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,587 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.18, for a total value of $349,710.66. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 7,174 shares in the company, valued at $969,781.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Jonathan Burrell sold 15,000 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.89, for a total transaction of $2,233,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 653,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $97,349,344.26. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 99,476 shares of company stock worth $14,166,944. Insiders own 19.89% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GRMN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Garmin from $120.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Garmin from $139.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. StockNews.com raised Garmin from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Tigress Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and set a $175.00 price target (up from $165.00) on shares of Garmin in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th. Finally, Barrington Research increased their target price on shares of Garmin from $119.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $142.33.

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.