Allstate Corp Invests $933,000 in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Allstate Corp bought a new position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 4,523 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $933,000.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Garmin during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Garmin during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new position in Garmin in the third quarter worth approximately $39,000. Finally, Kentucky Trust Co bought a new position in Garmin in the fourth quarter worth approximately $41,000. 81.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In other news, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.14, for a total value of $1,635,862.28. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,525 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,963,108.50. This trade represents a 4.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total transaction of $609,677.79. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,817,180.32. This represents a 25.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 24,342 shares of company stock valued at $5,486,094 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Tigress Financial boosted 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. Finally, 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. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Garmin has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $210.80.

Garmin Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of GRMN opened at $217.41 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $41.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.74, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. Garmin Ltd. has a 12 month low of $138.86 and a 12 month high of $246.50. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $217.34 and its two-hundred day moving average is $203.28.

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

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a $0.90 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.66%. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.25%.

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.