Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC Has $1.80 Million Stock Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC raised its holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 11.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 8,707 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 907 shares during the quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $1,796,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in Garmin during the fourth quarter worth $396,184,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Garmin by 1,580.3% during the 3rd 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 purchasing an additional 270,186 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Garmin by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,067,708 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $3,726,645,000 after buying an additional 215,344 shares during the period. Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its position in Garmin by 32.2% in the 4th 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 buying an additional 164,818 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas raised its stake in Garmin by 79.3% during the 4th 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 buying an additional 159,860 shares during the period. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on GRMN shares. 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. Tigress Financial boosted their price target 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. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Garmin currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $210.80.

Insider Activity at Garmin

In other Garmin news, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total transaction of $609,677.79. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,817,180.32. This represents a 25.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.14, for a total transaction of $1,635,862.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 149,525 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 worth $5,486,094. 19.54% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Garmin Stock Performance

Garmin stock opened at $218.24 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $41.99 billion, a PE ratio of 29.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. Garmin Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $138.86 and a fifty-two week high of $246.50. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $217.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $203.69.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 period in the prior year, the company posted $1.72 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a $0.90 dividend. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.25%.

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.