Cypress Capital Group Decreases Stock Holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Cypress Capital Group lowered its position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 14.8% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,777 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 309 shares during the quarter. Cypress Capital Group’s holdings in Garmin were worth $290,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GRMN. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Garmin during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $54,460,000. M&G Plc purchased a new position in Garmin during the 1st quarter valued at $38,727,000. SW Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Garmin in the 4th quarter worth $28,279,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Garmin by 28.4% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 862,527 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $110,869,000 after purchasing an additional 190,739 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Garmin during the 4th quarter valued at about $20,848,000. Institutional investors own 73.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Garmin from $155.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Garmin from $140.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Tigress Financial raised their target price on shares of Garmin from $175.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 14th. StockNews.com raised Garmin from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Finally, Bank of America cut Garmin from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $165.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Garmin presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $156.83.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Garmin news, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,055 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.16, for a total value of $1,781,343.80. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 40,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,257,359.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Garmin news, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,055 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.16, for a total transaction of $1,781,343.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 40,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,257,359.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 2,350 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.63, for a total value of $379,830.50. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 28,010 shares in the company, valued at $4,527,256.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 16,531 shares of company stock worth $2,835,858 in the last three months. 19.54% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Garmin Stock Performance

Shares of GRMN stock traded up $0.12 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $179.88. 78,793 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 840,811. The firm has a market capitalization of $34.55 billion, a PE ratio of 25.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin Ltd. has a 12 month low of $99.61 and a 12 month high of $181.26. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $167.96 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $155.88.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.58 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.40 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.42 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 24.36% and a return on equity of 17.09%. The firm’s revenue was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.45 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Garmin Ltd. will post 6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.67%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.31%.

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.