ARK Investment Management LLC Lowers Stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

ARK Investment Management LLC decreased its position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 20.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 27,085 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 6,978 shares during the period. ARK Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $5,587,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Garmin by 40.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,775,154 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $664,540,000 after purchasing an additional 1,093,219 shares during the period. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. acquired a new position in Garmin in the third quarter valued at $53,252,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its stake in Garmin by 1,580.3% in the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 287,283 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $50,570,000 after purchasing an additional 270,186 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its position in Garmin by 123.8% during the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 486,281 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $85,600,000 after buying an additional 268,996 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV boosted its stake in Garmin by 560.8% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 203,713 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $35,860,000 after buying an additional 172,883 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on GRMN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Tigress Financial increased their price target on shares of Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $206.80.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total transaction of $366,270.39. Following 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Garmin Stock Performance

GRMN opened at $226.14 on Wednesday. Garmin Ltd. has a 1 year low of $133.16 and a 1 year high of $246.50. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $213.89 and a 200 day moving average price of $196.76. The company has a market cap of $43.51 billion, a PE ratio of 30.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.98.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.51. Garmin had a net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.72 earnings per share. Garmin’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a $0.90 dividend. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.04%.

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.