Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Purchases New Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 9,300 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,195,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Avior Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Garmin by 169.5% in the 3rd quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 283 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. Headinvest LLC purchased a new position in shares of Garmin in the 3rd quarter valued at about $41,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in shares of Garmin by 35.2% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 380 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $49,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Garmin in the 4th quarter valued at about $51,000. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Garmin in the 3rd quarter valued at about $57,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.41% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In related news, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 1,622 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.19, for a total value of $217,656.18. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 159,319 shares in the company, valued at $21,379,016.61. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 1,622 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.19, for a total value of $217,656.18. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 159,319 shares in the company, valued at $21,379,016.61. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,587 shares of the company’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 value of $349,710.66. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 7,174 shares in the company, valued at $969,781.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 99,476 shares of company stock worth $14,166,944 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 19.89% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on GRMN. Barrington Research lifted their price target on Garmin from $119.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Garmin from $120.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Tigress Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $175.00 price objective (up from $165.00) on shares of Garmin in a report on Tuesday, February 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Garmin from $139.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Garmin from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $142.33.

Garmin Price Performance

Shares of Garmin stock opened at $141.02 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $27.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.02, a P/E/G ratio of 4.58 and a beta of 0.98. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $140.87 and its 200-day simple moving average is $126.85. Garmin Ltd. has a 1-year low of $94.89 and a 1-year 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 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.40 by $0.32. The business had revenue of $1.48 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.41 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 16.60% and a net margin of 24.67%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.35 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Garmin Ltd. will post 5.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders 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 dividend payout ratio is currently 43.52%.

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.