Kestra Investment Management LLC Acquires New Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Kestra Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 3,110 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $547,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its position in Garmin by 51.7% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 28,395 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $4,227,000 after purchasing an additional 9,681 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 77.0% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 4,755 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $708,000 after buying an additional 2,068 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Garmin by 81.6% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,603 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $424,000 after buying an additional 1,170 shares during the last quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. acquired a new stake in Garmin during the second quarter worth about $174,000. Finally, Mather Group LLC. raised its position in Garmin by 4.8% during the second quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 3,383 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $504,000 after acquiring an additional 156 shares in the last quarter. 73.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on GRMN shares. StockNews.com cut shares of Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $155.00 to $138.00 in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Tigress Financial upped 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, Barclays boosted their price objective on Garmin from $133.00 to $158.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Garmin has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $162.67.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $210.10, for a total transaction of $123,328.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,147 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,291,484.70. This represents a 8.72 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Stock Performance

Shares of GRMN stock opened at $212.60 on Monday. Garmin Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $119.15 and a fifty-two week high of $216.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.98, a PEG ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 0.97. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $186.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $175.52.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.99 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.53. The company had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.44 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 25.48% and a return on equity of 17.99%. Garmin’s quarterly revenue was up 24.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.41 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.01 earnings per share for the current year.

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.