Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC Buys New Stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 1,067 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $220,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of GRMN. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Garmin by 40.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,775,154 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $664,540,000 after buying an additional 1,093,219 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in 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 valued at $115,177,000 after acquiring an additional 411,084 shares during the period. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. purchased a new stake in Garmin in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $53,252,000. Marshall Wace LLP grew its stake in shares of Garmin by 34.0% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,098,443 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $178,958,000 after purchasing an additional 278,990 shares during the period. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 270,186 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In other Garmin news, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 $1,291,484.70. This trade represents a 8.72 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total transaction of $366,270.39. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 27,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,743,019.88. The trade was a 6.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Garmin from $133.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on shares of Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $155.00 to $138.00 in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $171.00.

Garmin Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE GRMN opened at $215.50 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $41.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 0.98. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $211.45 and its 200-day simple moving average is $187.30. Garmin Ltd. has a 52-week low of $119.15 and a 52-week high of $222.97.

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

Garmin Company 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.