Advisory Alpha LLC Takes Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Advisory Alpha LLC bought a new stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 1,470 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $303,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Barlow Wealth Partners Inc. lifted its position in Garmin by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Barlow Wealth Partners Inc. now owns 71,602 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $15,284,000 after buying an additional 2,255 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in Garmin by 30.1% in the fourth quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 41,791 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $8,620,000 after buying an additional 9,674 shares during the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB lifted its position in Garmin by 8.5% in the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 804 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $166,000 after buying an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in Garmin by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 3,598 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $742,000 after buying an additional 196 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strong Tower Advisory Services lifted its position in Garmin by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Strong Tower Advisory Services now owns 14,535 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $2,998,000 after buying an additional 152 shares during the last quarter. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Garmin Stock Down 0.3 %

GRMN stock opened at $215.65 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $41.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.37, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin Ltd. has a twelve month low of $119.15 and a twelve month high of $222.97. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $211.65 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $188.46.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.44 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 17.99% and a net margin of 25.48%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.41 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.01 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently issued reports on GRMN shares. Barclays raised their price target on Garmin from $133.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Tigress Financial increased 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered 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. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $171.00.

Insider Activity

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

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.