282,342 Shares in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) Acquired by Renaissance Technologies LLC

Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm bought 282,342 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,999,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC raised its stake in Garmin by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 2,309 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $344,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in shares of Garmin by 2.6% during the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 2,879 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $469,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the period. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV lifted 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 valued at $81,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares in the last quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Garmin by 4.0% in 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 purchasing an additional 84 shares during the period. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in Garmin by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,629 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $428,000 after purchasing an additional 86 shares in the last quarter. 73.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.46, for a total value of $499,015.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 88,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,081,348.12. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.46, for a total value of $499,015.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 88,622 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,081,348.12. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,055 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.16, for a total value of $1,781,343.80. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 40,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,257,359.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 12,892 shares of company stock valued at $2,296,174 in the last 90 days. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on GRMN. Bank of America lowered shares of Garmin from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price target for the company from $165.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 22nd. Barclays lowered shares of Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $181.00 to $133.00 in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $151.33.

Garmin Trading Down 0.6 %

Garmin stock opened at $171.58 on Wednesday. Garmin Ltd. has a 1-year low of $99.61 and a 1-year high of $184.42. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $174.22 and a 200 day simple moving average of $161.98. The company has a market cap of $32.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.00.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.40 by $0.18. Garmin had a return on equity of 17.09% and a net margin of 24.36%. The company had revenue of $1.51 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.42 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.45 EPS. Garmin’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 6.05 EPS for the current year.

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.