Insider Selling: Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) COO Sells 6,911 Shares of Stock

Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.15, for a total value of $1,569,833.65. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Garmin Trading Down 1.3 %

Garmin stock traded down $2.94 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $223.98. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 884,639 shares, compared to its average volume of 843,242. The stock has a market cap of $43.09 billion, a PE ratio of 30.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin Ltd. has a 52 week low of $134.11 and a 52 week high of $246.50. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $214.29 and a 200-day moving average price of $196.97.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The firm’s revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.72 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

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 $0.90 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.61%. Garmin’s payout ratio is presently 41.04%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Institutional Trading of Garmin

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fidelity D & D Bancorp Inc. raised its holdings in Garmin by 13.2% in the 4th quarter. Fidelity D & D Bancorp Inc. now owns 1,857 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $383,000 after buying an additional 217 shares during the last quarter. Azzad Asset Management Inc. ADV increased its position in Garmin by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Azzad Asset Management Inc. ADV now owns 20,954 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $4,322,000 after acquiring an additional 222 shares during the period. Investment Management Corp VA ADV bought a new position in shares of Garmin during the fourth quarter valued at $46,000. JT Stratford LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. JT Stratford LLC now owns 9,448 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,949,000 after purchasing an additional 451 shares during the period. Finally, Novem Group bought a new stake in shares of Garmin in the fourth quarter worth $987,000. 81.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.