Handelsbanken Fonder AB Increases Stock Holdings in Garmin Ltd. $GRMN

Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its holdings in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 12.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 208,469 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 23,821 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB owned approximately 0.11% of Garmin worth $51,329,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GRMN. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Garmin by 2.5% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,197,564 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $4,973,044,000 after acquiring an additional 499,235 shares in the last quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership boosted its stake in Garmin by 6.4% in the 2nd quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 5,892,150 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,229,810,000 after purchasing an additional 356,161 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Garmin by 1.3% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,606,511 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $958,405,000 after purchasing an additional 59,321 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Garmin during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $410,304,000. Finally, Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN increased its stake in Garmin by 0.4% during the 2nd quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 1,419,365 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $296,250,000 after purchasing an additional 5,213 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Trading Down 0.7%

Garmin stock opened at $252.42 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $48.59 billion, a PE ratio of 29.35, a P/E/G ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 1.00. Garmin Ltd. has a 12 month low of $169.26 and a 12 month high of $261.69. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $213.48 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $221.37.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.39 by $0.40. The firm had revenue of $2.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.01 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 22.96% and a return on equity of 19.64%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 16.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.41 earnings per share. Garmin has set its FY 2026 guidance at 9.350-9.350 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 12th will be given a dividend of $1.05 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 12th. This represents a $4.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.7%. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.86%.

Key Stories Impacting Garmin

Here are the key news stories impacting Garmin this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Rare institutional inflows continue to target Garmin, a long-term bullish technical/fund flow signal that some investors view as a structural tailwind. This can attract new demand and partly offset selling pressure. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Despite the sales, insiders still retain sizable holdings (for example, CEO Clifton Pemble owns 124,075 shares after his sale), which can temper concerns that leadership is abandoning the stock. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Large, coordinated insider selling likely pressured the share price: CEO Clifton Pemble sold 19,914 shares (~$5.01M), COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,694 shares (~$1.68M), EVP Matthew Munn sold 5,275 shares (~$1.32M), CFO Douglas Boessen sold 3,487 shares (~$877.5K), and VP Susan Lyman sold 3,805 shares (~$956K). These trades represent double-digit percentage reductions for several executives and are being interpreted by some investors as a negative signal or as near-term supply hitting the market. SEC filings for each sale: Read More., Read More., Read More., Read More., Read More.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on GRMN shares. Longbow Research raised shares of Garmin from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Tigress Financial boosted their price target on Garmin from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Barclays set a $240.00 price objective on Garmin in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Garmin in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Garmin from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Garmin has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $254.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,694 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $251.65, for a total value of $1,684,545.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 58,540 shares in the company, valued at $14,731,591. The trade was a 10.26% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, VP Susan Lyman sold 3,805 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $251.32, for a total value of $956,272.60. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 7,471 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,877,611.72. The trade was a 33.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders sold 57,319 shares of company stock worth $13,650,815. 15.38% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Garmin Profile

Garmin Ltd. is a technology company best known for designing and manufacturing navigation, communication and information devices that leverage global positioning system (GPS) technology. The company serves a diverse set of markets including consumer fitness and wearables, automotive navigation, aviation avionics, marine electronics and outdoor handheld devices. Garmin’s products combine hardware, mapping and software services to deliver location-aware solutions for personal, recreational and professional uses.

Garmin’s product lineup includes wearable fitness and multisport watches (Forerunner, Fenix, Venu), cycling computers and accessories (Edge, Varia), handheld and handheld-mounted GPS devices for outdoor activities, automotive and portable navigation units, marine chartplotters and fishfinders, and certified avionics for fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft.