Scientech Research LLC Takes $337,000 Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Scientech Research LLC bought a new position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 2,071 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $337,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of GRMN. Select Equity Group L.P. raised its stake in Garmin by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 2,006,563 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $326,909,000 after acquiring an additional 11,666 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 0.8% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,735,623 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $282,761,000 after purchasing an additional 13,968 shares during the period. Boston Partners grew its position in Garmin by 4.3% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,416,130 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $210,799,000 after buying an additional 58,343 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP increased its stake in Garmin by 34.0% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,098,443 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $178,958,000 after buying an additional 278,990 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in Garmin by 28.4% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 862,527 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $110,869,000 after buying an additional 190,739 shares during the last quarter. 73.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GRMN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Tigress Financial boosted their price target on shares of Garmin from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. StockNews.com downgraded Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, Barclays lowered Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $181.00 to $133.00 in a report on Friday, September 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $152.17.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In related news, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.46, for a total value of $499,015.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 88,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,081,348.12. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Garmin news, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,055 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.16, for a total transaction of $1,781,343.80. Following the sale, the insider now owns 40,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,257,359.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.46, for a total value of $499,015.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 88,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,081,348.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 12,892 shares of company stock valued at $2,296,174 in the last 90 days. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Garmin Trading Up 1.2 %

GRMN stock opened at $176.00 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $174.80 and a 200-day moving average of $163.67. The company has a market cap of $33.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.82, a PEG ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 1.00. Garmin Ltd. has a 12-month low of $99.61 and a 12-month high of $184.42.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.40 by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $1.51 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.42 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 17.09% and a net margin of 24.36%. Garmin’s quarterly revenue was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.45 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 6.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.