Peterson Wealth Services Acquires New Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Peterson Wealth Services acquired a new stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 18,401 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,365,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GRMN. Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Garmin by 35.2% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 380 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $49,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. Wetherby Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Garmin by 3.7% in the 1st quarter. Wetherby Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,909 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $294,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. BRYN MAWR TRUST Co raised its holdings in shares of Garmin by 4.3% in the 1st quarter. BRYN MAWR TRUST Co now owns 2,623 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $265,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares in the last quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance raised its holdings in shares of Garmin by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 2,207 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $232,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC raised its holdings in shares of Garmin by 4.4% in the 2nd quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 2,688 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $698,000 after purchasing an additional 114 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 73.41% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Price Performance

NYSE:GRMN traded up $0.31 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $141.38. 107,659 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 914,313. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.02, a PEG ratio of 4.66 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin Ltd. has a 52-week low of $94.89 and a 52-week high of $149.54. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $139.83 and its 200-day moving average price is $125.92.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.40 by $0.32. Garmin had a net margin of 24.67% and a return on equity of 16.60%. The company had revenue of $1.48 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.41 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.35 EPS. Garmin’s revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 5.45 earnings per share for the current year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Garmin’s payout ratio is 43.52%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In other Garmin news, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 1,622 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.19, for a total transaction of $217,656.18. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 159,319 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,379,016.61. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Garmin news, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 1,622 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.19, for a total transaction of $217,656.18. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 159,319 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,379,016.61. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 5,267 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.56, for a total transaction of $708,727.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 30,360 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,085,241.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 99,476 shares of company stock worth $14,166,944. Company insiders own 19.89% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Barrington Research boosted their price target on shares of Garmin from $119.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Garmin from $120.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Tigress Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $175.00 price objective (up previously from $165.00) on shares of Garmin in a research report on Tuesday, February 27th. StockNews.com raised shares of Garmin from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Garmin from $139.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $142.33.

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.