Congress Wealth Management LLC DE Acquires 724 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Congress Wealth Management LLC DE increased its holdings in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 27.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,370 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 724 shares during the period. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE’s holdings in Garmin were worth $695,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Garmin by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,067,708 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $3,726,645,000 after acquiring an additional 215,344 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in Garmin by 2.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,912,536 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,216,819,000 after purchasing an additional 134,303 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Garmin by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,363,464 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $765,912,000 after purchasing an additional 112,815 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its position in 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 valued at $664,540,000 after purchasing an additional 1,093,219 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN lifted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 1,401,004 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $246,619,000 after buying an additional 48,645 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Stock Performance

NYSE:GRMN opened at $213.59 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $217.31 and its 200-day simple moving average is $202.73. Garmin Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $138.86 and a fifty-two week high of $246.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.22, a P/E/G 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 for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.51. Garmin had a net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.72 earnings per share. Garmin’s revenue was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a $0.90 dividend. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 2,763 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.55, for a total value of $625,957.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 30,936 shares in the company, valued at $7,008,550.80. This trade represents a 8.20 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.14, for a total value of $1,635,862.28. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 149,525 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,963,108.50. The trade was a 4.60 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 24,342 shares of company stock valued at $5,486,094. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on GRMN. Barclays lifted their price objective on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, 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 research note on Thursday, February 20th. Three 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price 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.