Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec Boosts Stock Holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec raised its holdings in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 164.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 398,145 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 247,726 shares during the period. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec owned 0.21% of Garmin worth $82,121,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Diversified Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of Garmin in the 4th quarter valued at about $734,000. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 42.5% in the 4th quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. now owns 431,188 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $88,937,000 after buying an additional 128,672 shares in the last quarter. Baskin Financial Services Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Baskin Financial Services Inc. now owns 148,957 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $30,724,000 after buying an additional 4,616 shares in the last quarter. Savant Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 47.2% in the 4th quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 9,075 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,872,000 after buying an additional 2,910 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new stake in shares of Garmin in the 4th quarter valued at about $127,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GRMN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Garmin from $220.00 to $215.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Garmin from $188.00 to $152.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on shares of Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Garmin from $159.00 to $172.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $194.80.

Garmin Price Performance

NYSE:GRMN opened at $187.08 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $36.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $204.43 and a 200-day moving average price of $206.22. Garmin Ltd. has a 1-year low of $158.38 and a 1-year high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.61 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.62 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.50 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 19.31%. Garmin’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.42 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The business 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 is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.92%. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.25%.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In other news, Director Matthew Munn sold 4,637 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $225.31, for a total transaction of $1,044,762.47. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 11,450 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,579,799.50. This represents a 28.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total transaction of $609,677.79. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,432 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,817,180.32. This represents a 25.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 24,342 shares of company stock valued at $5,486,094 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

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.