Savant Capital LLC Acquires Shares of 1,875 Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Savant Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 1,875 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $241,000.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Headinvest LLC purchased a new position in shares of Garmin in the 3rd quarter valued at $41,000. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in shares of Garmin by 35.2% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 380 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $49,000 after buying an additional 99 shares during the last quarter. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Garmin in the 4th quarter valued at $51,000. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in Garmin during the 3rd quarter worth $57,000. 73.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GRMN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Barrington Research increased their price target on shares of Garmin from $119.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Garmin from $120.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Tigress Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $175.00 target price (up previously from $165.00) on shares of Garmin in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Garmin from $155.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Garmin from $140.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Garmin presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $153.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In other Garmin news, Director Jonathan Burrell sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.89, for a total transaction of $2,233,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 653,834 shares in the company, valued at approximately $97,349,344.26. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Jonathan Burrell sold 15,000 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.89, for a total transaction of $2,233,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 653,834 shares in the company, valued at $97,349,344.26. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 1,622 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.19, for a total transaction of $217,656.18. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 159,319 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,379,016.61. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 99,476 shares of company stock worth $14,166,944. 19.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Garmin Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE GRMN opened at $167.88 on Tuesday. Garmin Ltd. has a 52 week low of $99.61 and a 52 week high of $167.90. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $145.88 and a 200 day moving average price of $130.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $32.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.31 and a beta of 0.99.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.42 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.42. Garmin had a net margin of 24.96% and a return on equity of 17.26%. The firm had revenue of $1.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.25 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.02 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Garmin Ltd. will post 5.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.79%. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 41.18%.

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.