GAMMA Investing LLC Grows Stock Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 9.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,521 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 305 shares during the quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $726,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its position in shares of Garmin by 78.0% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 493 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $102,000 after purchasing an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Garmin by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 199,713 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $35,155,000 after buying an additional 5,965 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in Garmin by 35.8% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 135,477 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $22,755,000 after buying an additional 35,703 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in Garmin during the third quarter worth $185,000. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Garmin in the third quarter worth $501,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In other Garmin news, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of the business’s 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 completion of 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The stock was 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 directly owns 27,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,743,019.88. The trade was a 6.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. StockNews.com lowered Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on shares of Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock 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 reduced their price objective for the company from $155.00 to $138.00 in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Garmin from $133.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Garmin has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $171.00.

Garmin Price Performance

NYSE GRMN opened at $207.15 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $39.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.29, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin Ltd. has a 12 month low of $119.15 and a 12 month high of $222.97. The company has a 50-day moving average of $208.66 and a 200-day moving average of $183.66.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.99 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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%. Garmin’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.41 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.01 EPS for the current year.

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.