SVB Wealth LLC Makes New Investment in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

SVB Wealth LLC bought a new position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 1,611 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $207,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership raised its stake in shares of Garmin by 2.5% in the third quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 7,246,834 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $762,367,000 after buying an additional 176,510 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Garmin by 7.1% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,630,148 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $171,492,000 after buying an additional 108,427 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Garmin by 10.7% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,411,205 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $148,459,000 after buying an additional 136,929 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System raised its stake in shares of Garmin by 1.8% in the third quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 925,441 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $97,356,000 after buying an additional 15,923 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Garmin by 4.3% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 813,137 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $85,542,000 after buying an additional 33,580 shares during the period. 73.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GRMN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Bank of America raised their price objective on Garmin from $120.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Barrington Research lifted their target price on Garmin from $119.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. StockNews.com raised Garmin from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Garmin from $139.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Tigress Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating and set a $175.00 target price (up previously from $165.00) on shares of Garmin in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Garmin presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $142.33.

Garmin Price Performance

NYSE:GRMN opened at $142.51 on Wednesday. Garmin Ltd. has a 1 year low of $94.89 and a 1 year high of $149.54. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $141.30 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $127.10. The company has a market cap of $27.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.24, a PEG ratio of 4.58 and a beta of 0.98.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 21st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.40 by $0.32. Garmin had a return on equity of 16.60% and a net margin of 24.67%. The business had revenue of $1.48 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.41 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.35 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 5.45 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a $0.75 dividend. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.11%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. Garmin’s payout ratio is 43.52%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Garmin news, Director Jonathan Burrell sold 15,000 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $140.00, for a total value of $2,100,000.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 758,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $106,236,760. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 5,267 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.56, for a total transaction of $708,727.52. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 30,360 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,085,241.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Jonathan Burrell sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.00, for a total value of $2,100,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 758,834 shares in the company, valued at approximately $106,236,760. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 99,476 shares of company stock valued at $14,166,944 in the last quarter. 19.89% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.