Wedbush Securities Inc. Buys 833 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Wedbush Securities Inc. lifted its position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 14.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 6,699 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 833 shares during the period. Wedbush Securities Inc.’s holdings in Garmin were worth $1,382,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Garmin in the 4th quarter valued at about $396,184,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Garmin by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,067,708 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $3,726,645,000 after buying an additional 215,344 shares in the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH lifted its holdings in Garmin by 32.2% during the fourth quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 675,950 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $139,421,000 after buying an additional 164,818 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas boosted its position in Garmin by 79.3% during the 4th quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 361,490 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $74,561,000 after acquiring an additional 159,860 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Garmin in the 4th quarter valued at $32,795,000. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Garmin Trading Down 3.9 %

Shares of Garmin stock opened at $178.18 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $216.05 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $204.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $34.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.37, 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.

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

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a $0.90 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.02%. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.25%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on GRMN shares. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Three 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 data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $210.80.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 2,763 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.55, for a total value of $625,957.65. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 30,936 shares in the company, valued at $7,008,550.80. This represents a 8.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owns 149,525 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,963,108.50. This represents a 4.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 24,342 shares of company stock worth $5,486,094. 19.54% of the stock is owned by company 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.