Blueshift Asset Management LLC Purchases 5,857 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Blueshift Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 315.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 7,712 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,857 shares during the period. Blueshift Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $1,591,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of GRMN. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Garmin by 40.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,775,154 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $664,540,000 after purchasing an additional 1,093,219 shares during the last quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. bought a new position in Garmin in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $53,252,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 1,580.3% during the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 287,283 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $50,570,000 after buying an additional 270,186 shares during the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH boosted its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 164,818 shares during the period. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its stake in shares of Garmin by 79.3% in the fourth quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 361,490 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $74,561,000 after acquiring an additional 159,860 shares during the last quarter. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In other Garmin news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total transaction of $366,270.39. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 27,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,743,019.88. This represents a 6.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.15, for a total value of $1,569,833.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 63,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,321,353.20. The trade was a 9.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 26,103 shares of company stock valued at $5,852,364 in the last three months. 19.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Garmin Stock Performance

NYSE:GRMN opened at $208.90 on Thursday. Garmin Ltd. has a 52 week low of $138.86 and a 52 week high of $246.50. The company has a market capitalization of $40.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.58, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a 50-day moving average of $217.00 and a 200-day moving average of $201.28.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.51. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion during 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.72 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a $0.90 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.72%. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.04%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on GRMN shares. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and upped their target price for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Tigress Financial increased their target price on shares of 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 boosted their price target on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $210.80.

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.