Parallel Advisors LLC Acquires 128 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Parallel Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 2.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,078 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 128 shares during the quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $1,047,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Garmin in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Garmin in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Garmin by 578.6% in the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 190 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 162 shares in the last quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. bought a new stake in shares of Garmin in the fourth quarter valued at about $37,000. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new stake in shares of Garmin in the third quarter valued at about $39,000. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on GRMN shares. Tigress Financial boosted their target price on shares of Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Barclays boosted 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, February 20th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Three 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $210.80.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In related news, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief operating officer now owns 63,048 shares in the company, valued at $14,321,353.20. This represents a 9.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 149,525 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,963,108.50. This represents a 4.60 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 26,103 shares of company stock worth $5,852,364. Insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Stock Performance

Shares of GRMN stock opened at $208.90 on Thursday. Garmin Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $138.86 and a fifty-two week high of $246.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.58, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $217.00 and its 200-day simple moving average is $201.28.

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

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.90 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.72%. Garmin’s payout ratio is 41.04%.

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.