Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Sells 6,597 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lowered its position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 5.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 124,119 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 6,597 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $25,601,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its stake in Garmin by 71.2% in the second quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 5,982 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $975,000 after purchasing an additional 2,487 shares in the last quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp lifted its position in Garmin by 60.8% during the 2nd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 29,383 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $4,787,000 after buying an additional 11,108 shares in the last quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC grew its holdings in Garmin by 4.2% during the 2nd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 21,423 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $3,490,000 after acquiring an additional 855 shares during the last quarter. AXA S.A. increased its position in Garmin by 26.2% in the 2nd quarter. AXA S.A. now owns 78,226 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $12,745,000 after acquiring an additional 16,237 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Garmin by 136.7% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 711,849 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $115,177,000 after acquiring an additional 411,084 shares during the last quarter. 81.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Garmin Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of GRMN opened at $214.37 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $41.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 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 stock’s 50-day moving average price is $211.74 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $188.64.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.44 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 25.48% and a return on equity of 17.99%. Garmin’s quarterly revenue was up 24.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.41 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.01 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Garmin

In other news, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of the business’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 sale, the director now directly owns 6,147 shares in the company, valued at $1,291,484.70. The trade was a 8.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 27,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,743,019.88. This trade represents a 6.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 19.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Garmin from $133.00 to $158.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Morgan Stanley lowered Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $155.00 to $138.00 in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Tigress Financial upped their price target on Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has given 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 target price of $171.00.

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.