Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd Sells 1,652 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Key Points

• Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd. reduced its stake in Garmin Ltd. by 48.9% in the first quarter, decreasing its holdings to 1,729 shares valued at approximately $376,000.
• Several institutional investors significantly increased their stakes in Garmin, with Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd. growing its investment by 864.3%.
• Garmin recently declared a $0.90 quarterly dividend, amounting to an annual yield of 1.63% and a dividend payout ratio of 47.37%.

Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd lowered its holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN - Free Report) by 48.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,729 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock after selling 1,652 shares during the quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd's holdings in Garmin were worth $376,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Garmin by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,438,796 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $913,544,000 after buying an additional 75,332 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Garmin by 9.6% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,708,886 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $352,475,000 after buying an additional 149,210 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased 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 worth $352,394,000 after buying an additional 286,765 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in Garmin by 15.6% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 999,096 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $206,074,000 after buying an additional 135,135 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 25,047.9% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 885,456 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $192,259,000 after purchasing an additional 881,935 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company's stock.

Garmin Price Performance

GRMN stock traded up $0.03 on Friday, reaching $218.79. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,324,517 shares, compared to its average volume of 840,080. Garmin Ltd. has a 52 week low of $160.71 and a 52 week high of $246.50. The company has a market capitalization of $42.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 0.99. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $212.65 and a two-hundred day moving average of $209.02.

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 business had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.68 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.58 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 20.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.6%. Garmin's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.37%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GRMN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Garmin from $215.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Garmin from $172.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Barclays reissued an "underweight" rating and issued a $167.00 price objective (up from $152.00) on shares of Garmin in a report on Wednesday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Garmin has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $222.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In other news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,859 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.00, for a total value of $399,685.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly 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 legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,899 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $203.25, for a total transaction 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 trade represents a 5.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 15.38% of the stock is owned by 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.