Swiss National Bank Boosts Holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Swiss National Bank raised its stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 456,000 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,700 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank owned 0.24% of Garmin worth $80,270,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GRMN. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. raised its position in shares of Garmin by 5.9% in the first quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 2,314 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $344,000 after buying an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Garmin by 37.4% in the first quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 4,767 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $710,000 after buying an additional 1,298 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Garmin by 19.3% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 3,290 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $490,000 after buying an additional 533 shares during the last quarter. MQS Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Garmin in the first quarter valued at about $330,000. Finally, EP Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Garmin by 11.5% in the first quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,927 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $585,000 after buying an additional 405 shares during the last quarter. 73.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GRMN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Barclays raised their price objective 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. StockNews.com cut shares of Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on shares of Garmin from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut shares of Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $155.00 to $138.00 in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Three equities research 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 data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $162.67.

Garmin Stock Performance

NYSE GRMN opened at $209.27 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $179.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $172.57. Garmin Ltd. has a one year low of $118.79 and a one year high of $215.55. The firm has a market cap of $40.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.56, a PEG ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.97.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.99 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.53. Garmin had a net margin of 25.48% and a return on equity of 17.99%. The business had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.44 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.41 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 6.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,055 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.16, for a total value of $1,781,343.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 40,965 shares in the company, valued at $7,257,359.40. The trade was a 19.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.46, for a total transaction of $499,015.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 88,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,081,348.12. This represents a 3.01 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 13,479 shares of company stock valued at $2,419,502. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.