Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund Acquires 3,300 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund increased its holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 8.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 42,101 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,300 shares during the quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund’s holdings in Garmin were worth $8,684,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes 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 grew its position in 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 worth $765,912,000 after acquiring an additional 112,815 shares during the last quarter. 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 purchasing an additional 1,093,219 shares during the period. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN lifted its position in Garmin by 3.6% in the third quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 1,401,004 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $246,619,000 after purchasing an additional 48,645 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its position in Garmin by 4.1% in the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 767,729 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $135,143,000 after purchasing an additional 30,011 shares during the last quarter. 81.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Garmin Stock Down 0.9 %

NYSE:GRMN opened at $222.59 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $213.43 and its 200 day simple moving average is $195.96. The stock has a market cap of $42.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin Ltd. has a twelve month low of $133.16 and a twelve month high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.72 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.62%. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.04%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their target price on Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $206.80.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In related news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares in the company, valued at $5,743,019.88. The trade was a 6.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Company 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.