Board of the Pension Protection Fund Acquires New Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 5,000 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,031,000. Garmin makes up 1.2% of Board of the Pension Protection Fund’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th biggest holding.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of GRMN. Private Advisor Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Garmin by 6.1% during the second quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 4,231 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $690,000 after buying an additional 244 shares during the last quarter. Choreo LLC bought a new stake in shares of Garmin in the second quarter worth approximately $415,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Garmin in the second quarter worth approximately $46,000. American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Garmin by 5.9% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 47,349 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $7,714,000 after purchasing an additional 2,651 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its position in Garmin by 4.3% during the second quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 4,777 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $778,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares during the period. 81.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Garmin Stock Up 1.6 %

GRMN stock opened at $211.73 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $211.24 and its 200-day moving average price is $186.36. The stock has a market cap of $40.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.87, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin Ltd. has a twelve month low of $119.15 and a twelve month high of $222.97.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.99 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.53. The business 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 company’s revenue was up 24.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.41 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GRMN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays lifted 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. Morgan Stanley cut 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 report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their target price on Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Garmin presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $171.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Garmin news, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $210.10, for a total value of $123,328.70. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 6,147 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,291,484.70. The trade was a 8.72 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total transaction of $366,270.39. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,743,019.88. This trade represents a 6.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.