Nikko Asset Management Americas Inc. Sells 36,073 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Nikko Asset Management Americas Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 43.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 47,296 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 36,073 shares during the period. Nikko Asset Management Americas Inc.’s holdings in Garmin were worth $9,755,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GRMN. Metis Global Partners LLC grew its holdings in Garmin by 6.8% during the 3rd quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 9,554 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,682,000 after acquiring an additional 606 shares in the last quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Garmin by 11.0% during the 3rd quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,318 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,288,000 after acquiring an additional 725 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in Garmin by 9.8% during the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 17,998 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $3,168,000 after acquiring an additional 1,607 shares in the last quarter. Claro Advisors LLC bought a new position in Garmin during the 3rd quarter worth about $242,000. Finally, Swiss National Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 456,000 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $80,270,000 after buying an additional 1,700 shares in the last quarter. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Garmin Stock Up 2.2 %

Shares of Garmin stock opened at $214.00 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.28, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $216.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $200.84. Garmin Ltd. has a 52 week low of $138.86 and a 52 week high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.72 EPS. Garmin’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio is presently 41.04%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on GRMN. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and raised their price target for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Tigress Financial raised their price target on shares of Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on shares of Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $210.80.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 2,763 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.55, for a total transaction of $625,957.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,936 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,008,550.80. The trade was a 8.20 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total transaction of $609,677.79. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,817,180.32. This trade represents a 25.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 26,103 shares of company stock valued at $5,852,364. 19.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.