Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. Cuts Holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. reduced its position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 2.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,489 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 197 shares during the period. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co.’s holdings in Garmin were worth $1,338,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC lifted its position in Garmin by 40.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,775,154 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $664,540,000 after purchasing an additional 1,093,219 shares during the last quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Garmin in the 3rd quarter worth about $53,252,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its position 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 valued at $50,570,000 after buying an additional 270,186 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 123.8% in the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 486,281 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $85,600,000 after acquiring an additional 268,996 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wedge Capital Management L L P NC bought a new stake in Garmin during the third quarter worth approximately $45,501,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Stock Down 1.6 %

GRMN opened at $214.38 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $212.17 and a 200 day moving average of $190.07. The stock has a market cap of $41.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.21, a PEG ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin Ltd. has a 52-week low of $119.15 and a 52-week high of $222.97.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.53. The firm had revenue of $1.59 billion during 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%. The business’s revenue was up 24.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.41 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Garmin

In related 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly 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 legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $210.10, for a total transaction of $123,328.70. Following the transaction, the director now owns 6,147 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,291,484.70. The trade was 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 currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GRMN. Barclays lifted their target price on Garmin from $133.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $155.00 to $138.00 in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Garmin currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average 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.