First Horizon Advisors Inc. Cuts Stock Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

First Horizon Advisors Inc. cut its holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 1.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 122,659 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 1,775 shares during the quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. owned 0.06% of Garmin worth $25,300,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Olympiad Research LP purchased a new position in shares of Garmin in the fourth quarter valued at $329,000. Navellier & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in Garmin in the fourth quarter worth $1,587,000. Paradigm Asset Management Co. LLC lifted its position in Garmin by 45.6% in the fourth quarter. Paradigm Asset Management Co. LLC now owns 8,300 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,712,000 after buying an additional 2,600 shares during the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH lifted its position in Garmin by 32.2% in 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 last quarter. Finally, ING Groep NV bought a new stake in Garmin in the fourth quarter worth $12,731,000. 81.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Garmin Trading Down 1.9 %

NYSE:GRMN opened at $224.67 on Friday. Garmin Ltd. has a twelve month low of $131.20 and a twelve month high of $246.50. The company has a market cap of $43.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.98. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $213.43 and a 200-day simple moving average of $195.51.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.72 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued 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 1.60%. Garmin’s payout ratio is currently 41.04%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on GRMN shares. Morgan Stanley upgraded Garmin to a “sell” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Barclays raised their price target on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their price target on Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $206.80.

Insider Activity at Garmin

In related news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total value of $366,270.39. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares in the company, valued at $5,743,019.88. The trade was a 6.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.