Texas Permanent School Fund Corp Reduces Holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Texas Permanent School Fund Corp lowered its position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 20.0% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 25,310 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 6,333 shares during the period. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp’s holdings in Garmin were worth $4,124,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GRMN. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC grew its position in shares of Garmin by 3.3% in the first quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 2,309 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $344,000 after purchasing an additional 73 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in shares of Garmin by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 2,879 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $469,000 after acquiring an additional 74 shares during the last quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV raised its holdings in shares of Garmin by 17.6% during the 1st quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 542 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $81,000 after acquiring an additional 81 shares during the period. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Garmin by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 2,168 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $279,000 after acquiring an additional 84 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Garmin by 3.4% in the second quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,629 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $428,000 after purchasing an additional 86 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GRMN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Barclays lowered shares of Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $181.00 to $133.00 in a report on Friday. Bank of America cut Garmin from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $165.00 to $150.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com cut Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $151.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Garmin news, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.46, for a total value of $499,015.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 88,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,081,348.12. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,055 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.16, for a total transaction of $1,781,343.80. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 40,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,257,359.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.46, for a total transaction of $499,015.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 88,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,081,348.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 12,892 shares of company stock valued at $2,296,174 in the last three months. 19.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Garmin Stock Performance

Garmin stock opened at $172.68 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $33.19 billion, a PE ratio of 24.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.00. Garmin Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $99.61 and a fifty-two week high of $184.42. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $173.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $161.14.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.40 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $1.51 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.42 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 17.09% and a net margin of 24.36%. The company’s revenue was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.45 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 6.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.75 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This represents a $3.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.74%. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.31%.

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.