Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC Buys 482 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 8.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 6,161 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 482 shares during the period. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $1,271,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Garmin in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. bought a new stake in Garmin in the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Larson Financial Group LLC increased its position in Garmin by 578.6% in the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 190 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 162 shares during the last quarter. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. bought a new stake in Garmin in the fourth quarter worth $37,000. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new stake in Garmin in the third quarter worth $39,000. Institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total transaction of $366,270.39. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,743,019.88. The trade was a 6.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 63,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,321,353.20. This represents a 9.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 23,274 shares of company stock valued at $5,242,686. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Garmin Stock Down 1.1 %

NYSE GRMN opened at $219.51 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $42.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.03, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. Garmin Ltd. has a 52 week low of $138.86 and a 52 week high of $246.50. The company has a fifty day moving average of $216.28 and a two-hundred day moving average of $199.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.51. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The business’s revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.72 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio is currently 41.04%.

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.