Fiduciary Trust Co Takes $202,000 Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Fiduciary Trust Co purchased a new position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 981 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $202,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Deutsche Bank AG grew its holdings in shares of Garmin by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 506,675 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $104,507,000 after purchasing an additional 25,640 shares during the last quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC boosted its position in shares of Garmin by 31.0% in the 4th quarter. Colonial Trust Co SC now owns 351 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $72,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the period. CoreCap Advisors LLC grew its stake in Garmin by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC now owns 2,545 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $525,000 after buying an additional 175 shares during the last quarter. Crestline Management LP purchased a new position in Garmin during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,295,000. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers increased its position in Garmin by 28.7% during the fourth quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 27,575 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $5,688,000 after buying an additional 6,145 shares during the period. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GRMN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Garmin from $159.00 to $172.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 1st. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Garmin from $188.00 to $152.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Garmin from $220.00 to $215.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, Tigress Financial upped their target price 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. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $194.80.

Insider Activity at Garmin

In other news, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.15, for a total value of $1,569,833.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 63,048 shares in the company, valued at $14,321,353.20. This trade represents a 9.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 2,763 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.55, for a total value of $625,957.65. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,936 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,008,550.80. This trade represents a 8.20% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 24,342 shares of company stock worth $5,486,094 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 15.38% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Price Performance

Garmin stock opened at $198.00 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $199.64 and a 200-day simple moving average of $208.08. Garmin Ltd. has a 12 month low of $158.38 and a 12 month high of $246.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $38.12 billion, a PE ratio of 27.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.99.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.62 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.50 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 22.42%. The company’s revenue was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.42 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a $0.90 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.82%. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.37%.

About Garmin

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.