TCW Group Inc. Raises Stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

TCW Group Inc. increased its stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 5.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 50,906 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 2,828 shares during the period. TCW Group Inc.’s holdings in Garmin were worth $10,500,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Citigroup Inc. increased its position in shares of Garmin by 123.2% during the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 283,412 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $49,889,000 after acquiring an additional 156,441 shares during the period. Trajan Wealth LLC grew its stake in Garmin by 9.1% in the third quarter. Trajan Wealth LLC now owns 82,362 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $14,498,000 after purchasing an additional 6,878 shares in the last quarter. Passumpsic Savings Bank purchased a new position in Garmin during the 3rd quarter worth $3,137,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Garmin by 24.2% during the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 17,529 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $3,086,000 after purchasing an additional 3,415 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service lifted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 25.7% in the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 284,065 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $50,004,000 after buying an additional 58,025 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on GRMN. Tigress Financial raised their price target on Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Garmin presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $206.80.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $5,743,019.88. This trade represents a 6.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 19.54% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Garmin Stock Performance

Shares of Garmin stock opened at $224.67 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $43.23 billion, a PE ratio of 30.73, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $213.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $195.73. Garmin Ltd. has a one year low of $131.20 and a one year high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.51. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion during 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%. Garmin’s revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.72 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a $0.90 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.60%. Garmin’s payout ratio is 41.04%.

Garmin Company 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.