Prudential PLC Increases Position in Garmin Ltd. $GRMN

Key Points

• Prudential PLC increased its stake in Garmin Ltd. by 64.7% during Q1, holding over 21,000 shares valued at approximately $4.58 million.
• Garmin reported $2.17 earnings per share for the latest quarter, exceeding expectations, with revenues reaching $1.81 billion, a year-over-year increase of 20.4%.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.90 per share, with a payout ratio of 44.39%, reflecting strong financial health.

Prudential PLC increased its position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN - Free Report) by 64.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 21,109 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock after acquiring an additional 8,294 shares during the quarter. Prudential PLC's holdings in Garmin were worth $4,583,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GRMN. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Garmin by 25,047.9% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 885,456 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $192,259,000 after buying an additional 881,935 shares in the last quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. raised its holdings in shares of Garmin by 673.4% during the 1st quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. now owns 441,318 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $95,823,000 after buying an additional 384,258 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Garmin in the 1st quarter worth approximately $78,900,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Garmin by 2.0% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,425,166 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $4,000,656,000 after buying an additional 357,458 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its position in Garmin by 20.2% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,708,495 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $352,394,000 after acquiring an additional 286,765 shares during the last quarter. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on GRMN. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Garmin from $172.00 to $186.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Barclays reiterated an "underweight" rating and issued a $167.00 price target (up from $152.00) on shares of Garmin in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Garmin from $215.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $222.00.

Garmin Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of GRMN stock traded down $0.51 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $231.84. The stock had a trading volume of 206,121 shares, compared to its average volume of 938,783. Garmin Ltd. has a 1-year low of $160.94 and a 1-year high of $246.50. The firm has a market cap of $44.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.59, a PEG ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 0.99. The business's fifty day moving average is $218.12 and its 200-day moving average is $210.02.

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

Garmin Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 26th. Investors 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 presently 44.39%.

Insider Activity at Garmin

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

About Garmin

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.