Banque Cantonale Vaudoise Makes New $394,000 Investment in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Key Points

• Banque Cantonale Vaudoise acquired 1,817 shares of Garmin Ltd., valued at approximately $394,000, marking a new investment in the company during the first quarter.
• Garmin reported strong quarterly earnings of $2.17 earnings per share, surpassing estimates and showing a 20.4% year-over-year revenue increase to $1.81 billion.
• The company has announced a quarterly dividend of $0.90 per share, representing a 1.6% yield, with a payout ratio of 47.37%.

Banque Cantonale Vaudoise bought a new stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 1,817 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock, valued at approximately $394,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. GSA Capital Partners LLP boosted its position in shares of Garmin by 139.9% during the first quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 4,171 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $906,000 after buying an additional 2,432 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its position in shares of Garmin by 12.9% during the first quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 675 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $147,000 after buying an additional 77 shares during the period. Cozad Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Garmin by 1.5% during the first quarter. Cozad Asset Management Inc. now owns 20,360 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $4,421,000 after buying an additional 310 shares during the period. Fiera Capital Corp boosted its position in shares of Garmin by 41.5% during the first quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 17,477 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $3,795,000 after buying an additional 5,127 shares during the period. Finally, Foundations Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Garmin during the first quarter worth approximately $295,000. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GRMN has been the subject of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Garmin from $215.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Garmin from $172.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Barclays reissued an "underweight" rating and set a $167.00 target price (up previously from $152.00) on shares of Garmin in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Garmin presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $222.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In other Garmin news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,859 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $215.00, for a total value of $399,685.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 29,146 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,266,390. This represents a 6.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,899 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $203.25, for a total value of $1,605,471.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 141,626 shares in the company, valued at $28,785,484.50. This represents a 5.28% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Garmin Trading Up 0.7%

NYSE:GRMN traded up $1.58 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $229.83. 483,669 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 952,487. Garmin Ltd. has a one year low of $160.94 and a one year high of $246.50. The company has a market capitalization of $44.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.34, a P/E/G ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.99. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $213.61 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $209.15.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.17 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.27. Garmin had a return on equity of 20.00% and a net margin of 23.21%. The firm had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.68 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.58 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 20.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 12th will be issued a $0.90 dividend. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.6%. Garmin's dividend payout ratio is currently 44.39%.

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.