GSA Capital Partners LLP Boosts Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Key Points

• GSA Capital Partners LLP increased its holdings in Garmin Ltd. by 139.9% in Q1, now owning 4,171 shares valued at $906,000.
• CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,899 shares of Garmin stock on June 16th, reducing his ownership by 5.28% to 141,626 shares valued at approximately $28.8 million.
• Garmin reported a 20.4% year-over-year revenue growth in its recent quarter, with earnings per share of $2.17, surpassing analyst estimates.

GSA Capital Partners LLP increased its holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN - Free Report) by 139.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,171 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock after acquiring an additional 2,432 shares during the period. GSA Capital Partners LLP's holdings in Garmin were worth $906,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Federated Hermes Inc. increased 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 valued at $147,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. Cozad Asset Management Inc. grew its position in 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 valued at $4,421,000 after buying an additional 310 shares during the period. Fiera Capital Corp increased its holdings in 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 last quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Garmin in the first quarter valued at about $295,000. Finally, Norden Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Garmin by 329.1% during the 1st quarter. Norden Group LLC now owns 4,488 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $975,000 after purchasing an additional 3,442 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.60% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Garmin Stock Performance

Garmin stock traded up $0.03 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $218.79. 1,324,517 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 840,080. The company's fifty day moving average is $212.65 and its 200-day moving average is $208.99. The firm has a market cap of $42.12 billion, a PE ratio of 26.98, a PEG ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 0.99. Garmin Ltd. has a 52 week low of $160.71 and a 52 week high of $246.50.

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

Garmin Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, 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 approximately $28,785,484.50. The trade was a 5.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, 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 value of $399,685.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 29,146 shares in the company, valued at $6,266,390. The trade was a 6.00% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 15.38% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.