Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) Shares Bought by APG Asset Management N.V.

APG Asset Management N.V. grew its stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 75.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 191,400 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 82,100 shares during the quarter. APG Asset Management N.V.’s holdings in Garmin were worth $38,125,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired 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 fourth quarter. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd now owns 135 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 121 shares during the last quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin during the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,000. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. acquired a new position in Garmin in the 4th quarter valued at $37,000. Finally, Kentucky Trust Co purchased a new position in Garmin in the 4th quarter valued at $41,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on GRMN shares. Tigress Financial upped their target price on shares of Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $210.80.

Garmin Price Performance

Shares of GRMN stock opened at $173.20 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $33.32 billion, a PE ratio of 23.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.92. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $213.65 and its two-hundred day moving average is $203.93. Garmin Ltd. has a 12 month low of $138.86 and a 12 month high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.51. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion for 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%. The business’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 company earned $1.72 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total transaction of $609,677.79. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,432 shares in the company, valued at $1,817,180.32. This trade represents a 25.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 2,763 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.55, for a total value of $625,957.65. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 30,936 shares in the company, valued at $7,008,550.80. This represents a 8.20 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 24,342 shares of company stock valued at $5,486,094. 19.54% 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.