Sentry Investment Management LLC Reduces Stock Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Sentry Investment Management LLC cut its holdings in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 14.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 575 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 94 shares during the quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $119,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of GRMN. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Garmin by 2.0% in the 3rd 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 acquiring an additional 134,303 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Garmin by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,363,464 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $765,912,000 after acquiring an additional 112,815 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its position 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 acquiring an additional 1,093,219 shares in the last quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN grew its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 48,645 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors grew its position in shares of Garmin by 4.1% in the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 767,729 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $135,143,000 after acquiring an additional 30,011 shares in the last quarter. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Garmin news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total transaction of $366,270.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 27,612 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,743,019.88. The trade was a 6.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Garmin Price Performance

NYSE:GRMN opened at $226.39 on Thursday. Garmin Ltd. has a 12-month low of $134.01 and a 12-month high of $246.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.97, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.98. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $214.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $196.97.

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, topping 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 company had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.72 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. Research 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. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a dividend of $0.90 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.59%. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.04%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley upgraded Garmin to a “sell” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Barclays lifted their target price on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted 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. Three investment 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price 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.