Cullen Investment Group LTD. Lowers Stock Holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Cullen Investment Group LTD. reduced its stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 1.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 31,832 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 316 shares during the quarter. Garmin comprises approximately 1.0% of Cullen Investment Group LTD.’s holdings, making the stock its 24th biggest position. Cullen Investment Group LTD.’s holdings in Garmin were worth $6,566,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Citigroup Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Garmin by 123.2% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 283,412 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $49,889,000 after buying an additional 156,441 shares during the last quarter. Algert Global LLC bought a new stake in shares of Garmin in the 2nd quarter worth about $508,000. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Garmin in the 3rd quarter worth about $695,000. Trajan Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Garmin by 9.1% in the 3rd quarter. Trajan Wealth LLC now owns 82,362 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $14,498,000 after buying an additional 6,878 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Passumpsic Savings Bank bought a new stake in shares of Garmin in the 3rd quarter worth about $3,137,000. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

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

Garmin Price Performance

Garmin stock opened at $208.13 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $39.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin Ltd. has a 1 year low of $119.15 and a 1 year high of $222.97. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $211.09 and a two-hundred day moving average of $186.02.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.99 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.53. Garmin had a net margin of 25.48% and a return on equity of 17.99%. The firm had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.44 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.41 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 24.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

About Garmin

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.