Handelsbanken Fonder AB Grows Holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 28.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 118,591 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 26,555 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB owned about 0.06% of Garmin worth $24,461,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Garmin by 40.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,775,154 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $664,540,000 after acquiring an additional 1,093,219 shares in the last quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. acquired a new position in Garmin in the third quarter worth about $53,252,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its stake in Garmin by 1,580.3% in the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 287,283 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $50,570,000 after purchasing an additional 270,186 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its holdings in Garmin by 123.8% in the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 486,281 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $85,600,000 after buying an additional 268,996 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV raised its stake in Garmin by 560.8% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 203,713 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $35,860,000 after buying an additional 172,883 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on GRMN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their price target on shares of Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Garmin has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $195.67.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total transaction of $366,270.39. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,743,019.88. This trade represents a 6.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Price Performance

Shares of GRMN opened at $228.61 on Friday. Garmin Ltd. has a 12 month low of $128.89 and a 12 month high of $246.50. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $212.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $194.84. The company has a market cap of $43.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.01, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 0.98.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.51. Garmin had a net margin of 25.48% and a return on equity of 17.99%. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.72 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid 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 1.57%. Garmin’s payout ratio is currently 38.07%.

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.