Advisory Alpha LLC Makes New Investment in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Advisory Alpha LLC purchased a new position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 1,470 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $303,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC boosted its position in Garmin by 40.8% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,775,154 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $664,540,000 after purchasing an additional 1,093,219 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Garmin by 136.7% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 711,849 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $115,177,000 after buying an additional 411,084 shares during the period. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Garmin during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $53,252,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Garmin by 1,580.3% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 287,283 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $50,570,000 after buying an additional 270,186 shares during the period. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its stake in shares of Garmin by 123.8% during the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 486,281 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $85,600,000 after buying an additional 268,996 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on GRMN. Tigress Financial upped their target price on Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Morgan Stanley downgraded Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $155.00 to $138.00 in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on Garmin from $133.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $171.00.

Garmin Stock Performance

NYSE GRMN opened at $215.65 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $211.65 and a 200 day moving average price of $188.46. Garmin Ltd. has a one year low of $119.15 and a one year high of $222.97. The company has a market cap of $41.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 0.98.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.99 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.53. The firm had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.44 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 17.99% and a net margin of 25.48%. The firm’s revenue was up 24.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.41 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In other news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total transaction of $366,270.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,743,019.88. This represents a 6.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $210.10, for a total value of $123,328.70. Following the transaction, the director now owns 6,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,291,484.70. This represents a 8.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 19.54% of the stock is owned by company 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.