Inspire Advisors LLC Buys 323 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Inspire Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 4.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 8,181 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 323 shares during the quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $1,687,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Miller Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in Garmin in the fourth quarter worth approximately $637,000. King Luther Capital Management Corp increased its holdings in Garmin by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 9,125 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,882,000 after purchasing an additional 152 shares in the last quarter. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Garmin by 25.5% in the fourth quarter. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 1,619 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $334,000 after purchasing an additional 329 shares in the last quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance increased its holdings in Garmin by 23.5% in the fourth quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 2,246 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $463,000 after purchasing an additional 428 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its holdings in Garmin by 6.7% in the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 20,134 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $4,153,000 after purchasing an additional 1,257 shares in the last quarter. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Garmin Stock Performance

Shares of Garmin stock opened at $215.11 on Tuesday. Garmin Ltd. has a 52 week low of $138.86 and a 52 week high of $246.50. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $216.43 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $199.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.39 billion, a PE ratio of 29.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced its 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 analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 22.42%. Garmin’s quarterly revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.72 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast 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. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a dividend of $0.90 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.67%. Garmin’s payout ratio is 41.04%.

Insider Activity at Garmin

In other Garmin news, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.14, for a total value of $1,635,862.28. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 149,525 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,963,108.50. The trade was a 4.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total value of $366,270.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,743,019.88. This represents a 6.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 23,274 shares of company stock valued at $5,242,686 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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