Korea Investment CORP Raises Stock Holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Korea Investment CORP lifted its holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 7.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 73,265 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,200 shares during the quarter. Korea Investment CORP’s holdings in Garmin were worth $15,112,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Garmin during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. purchased a new stake in Garmin during the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. bought a new stake in Garmin in the fourth quarter worth $37,000. Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in Garmin by 578.6% during the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 190 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 162 shares during the period. Finally, Kentucky Trust Co bought a new position in Garmin during the fourth quarter valued at $41,000. Institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Stock Performance

Garmin stock opened at $213.59 on Monday. Garmin Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $138.86 and a fifty-two week high of $246.50. The company has a market capitalization of $41.10 billion, a PE ratio of 29.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $217.31 and a 200-day moving average price of $203.03.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.51. Garmin had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 22.42%. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.72 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current 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 given a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 49.25%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target 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. Barclays boosted their target price on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Tigress Financial increased their price target on Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded Garmin to a “sell” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $210.80.

Insider Activity

In other Garmin news, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.15, for a total value of $1,569,833.65. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 63,048 shares in the company, valued at $14,321,353.20. The trade was a 9.88 % 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, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total transaction of $609,677.79. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,817,180.32. The trade was a 25.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 24,342 shares of company stock worth $5,486,094. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Garmin Company 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.