Johnson Financial Group Inc. Acquires 106 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Johnson Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 0.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 23,497 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 106 shares during the quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Garmin were worth $5,072,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Garmin in the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Garmin by 864.3% in the 4th quarter. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd now owns 135 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 121 shares during the last quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. bought a new position in shares of Garmin in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Finally, Kentucky Trust Co purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $41,000. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were 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 directly owns 149,525 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,963,108.50. The trade was a 4.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.15, for a total transaction of $1,569,833.65. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 63,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,321,353.20. This represents a 9.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 24,342 shares of company stock worth $5,486,094. Insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:GRMN opened at $198.82 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $38.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.92. Garmin Ltd. has a 12 month low of $142.85 and a 12 month high of $246.50. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $207.23 and a 200-day moving average price of $205.43.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its quarterly 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. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.72 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio is 49.25%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on GRMN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Garmin from $260.00 to $220.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Tigress Financial boosted their target price 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 upgraded shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Barclays upped 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. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Garmin currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $202.80.

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.