First Pacific Financial Reduces Stock Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

First Pacific Financial decreased its holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,664 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 145 shares during the period. First Pacific Financial’s holdings in Garmin were worth $985,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Garmin by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,276,118 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $2,049,121,000 after purchasing an additional 365,713 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in shares of Garmin by 3.5% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 15,562,275 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,622,990,000 after buying an additional 527,327 shares during the period. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of Garmin by 2.5% during the third quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 7,246,834 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $762,367,000 after buying an additional 176,510 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Garmin by 5.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,798,228 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $545,971,000 after buying an additional 355,087 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Garmin by 2.2% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,508,214 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $364,987,000 after acquiring an additional 74,703 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.41% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Stock Performance

Shares of Garmin stock opened at $147.98 on Thursday. Garmin Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $94.89 and a fifty-two week high of $149.42. The company has a market cap of $28.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.85 and a beta of 0.97. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $133.09 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $121.70.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 21st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.72 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.40 by $0.32. The company had revenue of $1.48 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.41 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 16.60% and a net margin of 24.67%. Garmin’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.35 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 5.43 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Garmin’s payout ratio is 43.52%.

Insider Activity

In other Garmin news, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 1,622 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.19, for a total transaction of $217,656.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 159,319 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,379,016.61. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 1,622 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.19, for a total transaction of $217,656.18. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 159,319 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,379,016.61. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 5,267 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.56, for a total transaction of $708,727.52. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 30,360 shares in the company, valued at $4,085,241.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 99,476 shares of company stock worth $14,166,944 over the last 90 days. 19.89% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Tigress Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $175.00 target price (up from $165.00) on shares of Garmin in a research report on Tuesday, February 27th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. Barrington Research increased their price objective on shares of Garmin from $119.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Garmin from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $135.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Monday, January 8th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $131.50.

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.