National Pension Service Has $50 Million Stock Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

National Pension Service raised its stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN - Free Report) by 25.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 284,065 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock after purchasing an additional 58,025 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service owned 0.15% of Garmin worth $50,004,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in GRMN. GSA Capital Partners LLP bought a new position in Garmin during the first quarter worth about $1,389,000. LBP AM SA lifted its stake in Garmin by 81.4% in the first quarter. LBP AM SA now owns 7,284 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $1,084,000 after buying an additional 3,268 shares during the period. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System boosted its position in shares of Garmin by 3.5% during the first quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 173,715 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $25,861,000 after purchasing an additional 5,945 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its stake in Garmin by 51.7% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 28,395 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $4,227,000 after buying an additional 9,681 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its stake in Garmin by 4.4% in the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 178,073 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $26,500,000 after purchasing an additional 7,553 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.41% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GRMN has been the subject of a number of research reports. Tigress Financial increased their price objective on Garmin from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Barclays boosted 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. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Garmin from an "equal weight" rating to an "underweight" rating and decreased their target price for the company from $155.00 to $138.00 in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Garmin from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Garmin has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $162.67.

Garmin Trading Up 2.4 %

Shares of Garmin stock traded up $4.86 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $209.09. 567,060 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 855,382. Garmin Ltd. has a 1-year low of $114.49 and a 1-year high of $210.33. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $175.10 and a 200-day moving average price of $168.86.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.53. Garmin had a return on equity of 17.99% and a net margin of 25.48%. The firm had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.44 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.41 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 24.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 6.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,055 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.16, for a total transaction of $1,781,343.80. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 40,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,257,359.40. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,055 shares of the business's 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 directly owns 40,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,257,359.40. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.46, for a total value of $499,015.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 88,622 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,081,348.12. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 12,892 shares of company stock valued at $2,296,174 over the last ninety days. 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.