Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Increases Stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 4.3% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 72,582 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 3,017 shares during the period. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in Garmin were worth $14,971,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Garmin by 40.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,775,154 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $664,540,000 after purchasing an additional 1,093,219 shares during the period. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. acquired a new stake in Garmin in the third quarter valued at approximately $53,252,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its holdings in Garmin by 1,580.3% in the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 287,283 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $50,570,000 after purchasing an additional 270,186 shares during the period. Allianz Asset Management GmbH grew its holdings in Garmin by 32.2% in the fourth quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 675,950 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $139,421,000 after purchasing an additional 164,818 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Garmin in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,795,000. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Garmin news, Director Matthew Munn sold 4,637 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $225.31, for a total value of $1,044,762.47. Following the sale, the director now owns 11,450 shares in the company, valued at $2,579,799.50. The trade was a 28.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total value of $609,677.79. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 8,432 shares in the company, valued at $1,817,180.32. This represents a 25.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 24,342 shares of company stock valued at $5,486,094. Insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:GRMN opened at $209.78 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $216.96 and its 200-day moving average price is $201.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.36 billion, a PE ratio of 28.70, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. Garmin Ltd. has a 1 year low of $138.86 and a 1 year high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.51. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 22.42%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.72 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Shareholders 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 yield of 1.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 41.04%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

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.