Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.90

Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 20th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of 0.90 per share by the scientific and technical instruments company on Friday, March 27th. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. This is a positive change from Garmin’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75.

Garmin has raised its dividend payment by an average of 4.4% annually over the last three years. Garmin has a payout ratio of 37.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Garmin to earn $7.98 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 37.6%.

Garmin Trading Down 1.9 %

Shares of GRMN opened at $224.67 on Friday. Garmin has a twelve month low of $131.20 and a twelve month high of $246.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.98. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $213.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $195.07.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 EPS 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 company had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.72 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Garmin will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Garmin news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owns 27,612 shares in the company, valued at $5,743,019.88. This trade represents a 6.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

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.