Guidance Capital Inc. Invests $924,000 in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Guidance Capital Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 6,524 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $924,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of GRMN. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Garmin during the fourth quarter worth approximately $54,460,000. SW Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Garmin during the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,279,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Garmin by 28.4% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 862,527 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $110,869,000 after buying an additional 190,739 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its stake in shares of Garmin by 153.8% during the fourth quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 291,918 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $37,737,000 after purchasing an additional 176,908 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Garmin during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $20,848,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.41% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In other news, EVP Patrick Desbois sold 4,126 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.52, for a total transaction of $674,683.52. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 58,412 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,551,530.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 2,350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $161.63, for a total transaction of $379,830.50. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 28,010 shares in the company, valued at $4,527,256.30. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Patrick Desbois sold 4,126 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $163.52, for a total transaction of $674,683.52. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 58,412 shares in the company, valued at $9,551,530.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Stock Up 0.6 %

GRMN stock traded up $0.91 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $162.92. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,139,766 shares, compared to its average volume of 601,485. Garmin Ltd. has a 52 week low of $99.61 and a 52 week high of $171.64. The stock has a market cap of $31.29 billion, a PE ratio of 22.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.51 and a beta of 0.98. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $161.55 and its 200-day simple moving average is $143.13.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $1.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.25 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 24.96% and a return on equity of 17.26%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 20.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.02 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 5.77 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.84%. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio is 42.31%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GRMN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Tigress Financial increased their price target on shares of Garmin from $175.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 14th. Bank of America cut shares of Garmin from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $165.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Garmin from $155.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. StockNews.com raised shares of Garmin from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 25th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of Garmin from $140.00 to $166.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Garmin has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $156.83.

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.