Los Angeles Capital Management LLC Purchases New Stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Los Angeles Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 99,549 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,533,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC owned approximately 0.05% of Garmin at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its stake in Garmin by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 4,314 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $759,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Garmin during the 3rd quarter worth $13,448,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in Garmin by 16.3% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 16,794 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $2,956,000 after buying an additional 2,349 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its stake in Garmin by 34.5% during the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 9,935 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,729,000 after buying an additional 2,547 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Forsta AP Fonden grew its stake in Garmin by 9.5% during the 3rd quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 28,900 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $5,087,000 after buying an additional 2,500 shares during the last quarter. 81.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays upped their price objective on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Tigress Financial increased their price target on Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Garmin to a “sell” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Three 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $206.80.

Garmin Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of GRMN stock opened at $226.14 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $213.89 and a 200 day simple moving average of $196.76. Garmin Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $133.16 and a fifty-two week high of $246.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.94, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.98.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.72 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

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 issued a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio is 41.04%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,743,019.88. This represents a 6.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.