Tower View Wealth Management LLC Makes New Investment in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Tower View Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 16,278 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,357,000. Garmin accounts for about 1.8% of Tower View Wealth Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th largest holding.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Citigroup Inc. increased its stake in Garmin by 123.2% during the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 283,412 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $49,889,000 after purchasing an additional 156,441 shares during the period. Passumpsic Savings Bank purchased a new stake in Garmin during the third quarter worth about $3,137,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Garmin by 24.2% during the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 17,529 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $3,086,000 after purchasing an additional 3,415 shares during the period. National Pension Service increased its stake in Garmin by 25.7% during the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 284,065 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $50,004,000 after purchasing an additional 58,025 shares during the period. Finally, Diversified Trust Co purchased a new stake in Garmin during the fourth quarter worth about $734,000. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on the stock. Tigress Financial boosted their price target on shares of Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Barclays boosted their price objective on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley raised Garmin to a “sell” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $210.80.

Insider Activity at Garmin

In other news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Matthew Munn sold 4,637 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $225.31, for a total value of $1,044,762.47. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 11,450 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,579,799.50. The trade was a 28.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 23,274 shares of company stock valued at $5,242,686 over the last three months. 19.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Garmin Stock Up 2.2 %

Shares of GRMN opened at $228.88 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $215.06 and a 200 day moving average price of $197.77. The company has a market capitalization of $44.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin Ltd. has a 52-week low of $136.25 and a 52-week high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.51. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 22.42%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.72 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared 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. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.