Financial Counselors Inc. Sells 1,286 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Financial Counselors Inc. decreased its position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 22.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,363 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 1,286 shares during the period. Financial Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Garmin were worth $900,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in Garmin by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 2,863 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $591,000 after buying an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Curbstone Financial Management Corp raised its holdings in Garmin by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Curbstone Financial Management Corp now owns 3,886 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $802,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its position in Garmin by 26.8% in the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 241 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $50,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Garmin by 11.1% during the 4th quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 522 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $108,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Finally, HB Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Garmin by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,821 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $788,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. 81.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GRMN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Tigress Financial increased their price objective on Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $210.80.

Garmin Trading Down 0.1 %

GRMN opened at $216.61 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $217.34 and its 200 day moving average is $202.52. The company has a market cap of $41.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.63, a PEG 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 released its quarterly 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 net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.72 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The business 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 dividend of $0.90 per share. 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 dividend payout ratio is presently 49.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.15, for a total transaction of $1,569,833.65. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 63,048 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,321,353.20. The trade was a 9.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.14, for a total transaction of $1,635,862.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,525 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,963,108.50. This represents a 4.60 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 24,342 shares of company stock worth $5,486,094 over the last quarter. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.