Artisan Partners Limited Partnership Decreases Stock Holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Artisan Partners Limited Partnership reduced its stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 12.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 5,642,095 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 792,393 shares during the quarter. Garmin comprises approximately 1.8% of Artisan Partners Limited Partnership’s holdings, making the stock its 9th largest position. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership owned about 2.94% of Garmin worth $1,163,739,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GRMN. Passumpsic Savings Bank bought a new stake in Garmin in the 3rd quarter valued at $3,137,000. Diversified Trust Co purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin in the fourth quarter worth about $734,000. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. boosted its stake in Garmin by 42.5% during the fourth quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. now owns 431,188 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $88,937,000 after buying an additional 128,672 shares during the last quarter. Baskin Financial Services Inc. boosted its stake in Garmin by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Baskin Financial Services Inc. now owns 148,957 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $30,724,000 after buying an additional 4,616 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC increased its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 1,093,219 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on GRMN shares. Morgan Stanley upgraded Garmin to a “sell” rating and increased their target price for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of 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. upped their target price on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their price target on Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $210.80.

Garmin Trading Down 0.7 %

NYSE GRMN opened at $216.95 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $217.30 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $202.42. The stock has a market cap of $41.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. Garmin Ltd. has a 12-month low of $138.86 and a 12-month high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.72 earnings per share. Garmin’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side 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. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a $0.90 dividend. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s payout ratio is 49.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.14, for a total value of $1,635,862.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 149,525 shares in the company, valued at $33,963,108.50. The trade was a 4.60 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 2,763 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.55, for a total value of $625,957.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,936 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,008,550.80. The trade was a 8.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 24,342 shares of company stock valued at $5,486,094. Company insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

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.