1620 Investment Advisors Inc. Raises Stock Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

1620 Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 4.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,168 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 84 shares during the period. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Garmin were worth $279,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. WBI Investments LLC purchased a new position in Garmin during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $982,000. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Garmin in the fourth quarter worth $33,000. Aigen Investment Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Garmin in the fourth quarter worth $2,267,000. Trexquant Investment LP increased its stake in shares of Garmin by 82.1% in the fourth quarter. Trexquant Investment LP now owns 54,383 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $6,990,000 after buying an additional 24,526 shares during the period. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LLC increased its position in Garmin by 12.4% during the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 11,931 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,534,000 after purchasing an additional 1,319 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have issued reports on GRMN shares. Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Garmin from $175.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 14th. Barrington Research upped their target price on shares of Garmin from $119.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Garmin from $140.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Garmin from $155.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Garmin presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $156.83.

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In other Garmin news, Director Jonathan Burrell sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.89, for a total transaction of $2,233,350.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 653,834 shares in the company, valued at approximately $97,349,344.26. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,587 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.18, for a total value of $349,710.66. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 7,174 shares in the company, valued at approximately $969,781.32. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Jonathan Burrell sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $148.89, for a total transaction of $2,233,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 653,834 shares in the company, valued at approximately $97,349,344.26. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 99,476 shares of company stock worth $14,166,944. Company insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Price Performance

Garmin stock traded down $8.68 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $162.05. The stock had a trading volume of 1,321,511 shares, compared to its average volume of 921,608. The company has a market capitalization of $31.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.07, a PEG ratio of 5.44 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $152.39 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $135.07. Garmin Ltd. has a one year low of $99.61 and a one year high of $171.64.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.00 by $0.42. The company had revenue of $1.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.25 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 24.96% and a return on equity of 17.26%. Garmin’s revenue was up 20.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.02 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 5.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio is currently 41.18%.

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.