GHP Investment Advisors Inc. Acquires 3,345 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

GHP Investment Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 5.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 65,604 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 3,345 shares during the period. GHP Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Garmin were worth $10,688,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in Garmin by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 7,310,112 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $939,642,000 after acquiring an additional 63,278 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners lifted its holdings in Garmin by 4.3% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,416,130 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $210,799,000 after buying an additional 58,343 shares during the period. Wells Fargo & Company MN raised its holdings 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 worth $166,021,000 after purchasing an additional 54,001 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 190,739 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors grew its holdings in Garmin by 20.2% in the first quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 839,537 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $124,982,000 after purchasing an additional 141,001 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GRMN has been the subject of several recent research reports. StockNews.com lowered shares of Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday. Bank of America lowered 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Garmin currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $156.83.

Garmin Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE GRMN opened at $182.73 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $173.58 and its 200-day moving average price is $160.88. Garmin Ltd. has a 52-week low of $99.61 and a 52-week high of $184.42. The company has a market cap of $35.12 billion, a PE ratio of 25.77, a P/E/G ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.00.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.58 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.40 by $0.18. Garmin had a return on equity of 17.09% and a net margin of 24.36%. The business had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.42 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.45 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 6.05 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 issued a dividend of $0.75 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.64%. Garmin’s payout ratio is 42.31%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Garmin news, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.46, for a total value of $499,015.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 88,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,081,348.12. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Garmin news, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.46, for a total transaction of $499,015.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 88,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,081,348.12. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,055 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.16, for a total transaction of $1,781,343.80. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 40,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,257,359.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 12,892 shares of company stock valued at $2,296,174 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

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.