Argent Capital Management LLC Lowers Stock Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Argent Capital Management LLC cut its position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN - Free Report) by 2.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 177,490 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock after selling 3,548 shares during the quarter. Argent Capital Management LLC owned approximately 0.09% of Garmin worth $36,609,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its position in 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 period. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Garmin in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $46,000. American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Garmin by 5.9% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 47,349 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $7,714,000 after purchasing an additional 2,651 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Garmin by 8.4% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 163,517 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $26,640,000 after purchasing an additional 12,616 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Garmin by 0.8% in 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 buying an additional 13,968 shares during the last quarter. 81.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 6,147 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,291,484.70. This represents a 8.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total value of $366,270.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,743,019.88. This represents 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 Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on GRMN. Barclays upped their price target on Garmin from $133.00 to $158.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Garmin from an "equal weight" rating to an "underweight" rating and cut their target price for the stock from $155.00 to $138.00 in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their price target on shares of Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Three 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $171.00.

Garmin Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of GRMN stock traded up $0.93 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $214.38. The stock had a trading volume of 488,328 shares, compared to its average volume of 679,885. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $211.32 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $186.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.17 billion, a PE ratio of 27.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin Ltd. has a 52-week low of $119.15 and a 52-week high of $222.97.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN - Get Free Report) last released its 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. Garmin had a net margin of 25.48% and a return on equity of 17.99%. The firm had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.44 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.41 EPS. The company's revenue was up 24.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research 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.