Savant Capital LLC Purchases New Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Savant Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm purchased 1,875 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $241,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GRMN. Greenleaf Trust raised its position in Garmin by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 3,518 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $452,000 after purchasing an additional 87 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in Garmin by 35.2% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 380 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares during the period. Independent Advisor Alliance increased its position in shares of Garmin by 5.3% during the third quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 2,207 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $232,000 after acquiring an additional 111 shares during the period. Lindbrook Capital LLC increased its position in shares of Garmin by 32.0% during the fourth quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 466 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $60,000 after acquiring an additional 113 shares during the period. Finally, Balentine LLC increased its position in shares of Garmin by 2.0% during the third quarter. Balentine LLC now owns 6,595 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $694,000 after acquiring an additional 131 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GRMN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Garmin from $155.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Bank of America raised their target price 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. StockNews.com lowered shares of Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Barrington Research raised their target price on shares of Garmin from $119.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Garmin from $140.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $153.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In other news, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 1,622 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.19, for a total transaction of $217,656.18. Following the completion of the sale, 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 link. In other news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 5,267 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.56, for a total transaction of $708,727.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,360 shares in the company, valued at $4,085,241.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 1,622 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.19, for a total transaction of $217,656.18. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 159,319 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,379,016.61. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 99,476 shares of company stock worth $14,166,944 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of GRMN stock opened at $167.88 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $32.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.68, a PEG ratio of 5.31 and a beta of 0.99. The company’s 50 day moving average is $145.88 and its 200 day moving average is $130.05. Garmin Ltd. has a 52-week low of $99.61 and a 52-week high of $167.90.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.42 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.42. The company had revenue of $1.38 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.25 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 24.96% and a return on equity of 17.26%. Garmin’s revenue was up 20.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.02 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 5.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.79%. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.18%.

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.