Avantax Planning Partners Inc. Has $406,000 Stock Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Avantax Planning Partners Inc. cut its holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 2.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,970 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 48 shares during the period. Avantax Planning Partners Inc.’s holdings in Garmin were worth $406,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Garmin by 2.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,912,536 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,216,819,000 after buying an additional 134,303 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,363,464 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $765,912,000 after buying an additional 112,815 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Garmin by 40.8% in 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 purchasing an additional 1,093,219 shares in the last quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN increased its stake in Garmin by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 1,401,004 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $246,619,000 after buying an additional 48,645 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 889,838 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $183,538,000 after purchasing an additional 14,200 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total value of $609,677.79. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,817,180.32. The trade was a 25.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Matthew Munn sold 4,637 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $225.31, for a total value of $1,044,762.47. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 11,450 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,579,799.50. This represents a 28.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 26,103 shares of company stock valued at $5,852,364 over the last 90 days. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Garmin Trading Down 0.9 %

NYSE GRMN opened at $213.48 on Wednesday. Garmin Ltd. has a 52 week low of $138.86 and a 52 week high of $246.50. The stock has a market cap of $41.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.20, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $216.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $200.15.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.51. Garmin had a net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.72 EPS. Garmin’s quarterly revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a $0.90 dividend. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio is 41.04%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on shares of Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $210.80.

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.