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

EP Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 3,522 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $453,000.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership boosted its stake in shares of Garmin by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 7,310,112 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $939,642,000 after buying an additional 63,278 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Garmin by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,715,703 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $220,541,000 after purchasing an additional 45,242 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in 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 valued at $171,492,000 after purchasing an additional 108,427 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in 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 valued at $148,459,000 after purchasing an additional 136,929 shares during the period. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company MN lifted its position in Garmin by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 1,291,589 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $166,021,000 after purchasing an additional 54,001 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Bank of America downgraded shares of Garmin from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $165.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Barrington Research raised their price objective on shares of Garmin from $119.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on shares of Garmin from $175.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Garmin from $155.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $156.83.

Garmin Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of Garmin stock opened at $160.79 on Wednesday. Garmin Ltd. has a 12-month low of $99.61 and a 12-month high of $171.64. The stock has a market cap of $30.88 billion, a PE ratio of 22.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a 50-day moving average of $158.54 and a two-hundred day moving average of $141.19.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.42 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.00 by $0.42. Garmin had a net margin of 24.96% and a return on equity of 17.26%. The business had revenue of $1.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.25 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.02 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 20.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 5.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.87%. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.18%.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In other Garmin news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 2,350 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.63, for a total value of $379,830.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 28,010 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,527,256.30. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Garmin news, EVP Patrick Desbois sold 4,126 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.52, for a total value of $674,683.52. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 58,412 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,551,530.24. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 2,350 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.63, for a total transaction of $379,830.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 28,010 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,527,256.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

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.