Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Sells 31,520 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lessened its holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN - Free Report) by 6.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 485,368 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock after selling 31,520 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned 0.25% of Garmin worth $85,439,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Apollon Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Garmin by 4.2% in the third quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 13,673 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $2,407,000 after acquiring an additional 553 shares during the last quarter. Versor Investments LP lifted its stake in Garmin by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Versor Investments LP now owns 16,405 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $2,888,000 after purchasing an additional 293 shares during the last quarter. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Garmin by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. now owns 11,715 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $2,062,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. grew its holdings in Garmin by 14.7% during the third quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 56,375 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $9,924,000 after purchasing an additional 7,236 shares during the period. Finally, Objective Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Garmin during the third quarter worth approximately $347,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.41% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on GRMN. Morgan Stanley downgraded Garmin from an "equal weight" rating to an "underweight" rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $155.00 to $138.00 in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Tigress Financial increased their price objective on shares of Garmin from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Garmin from $133.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, StockNews.com cut Garmin from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Garmin presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $162.67.

Garmin Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE GRMN traded down $2.94 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $208.43. 684,860 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 860,138. The stock has a market cap of $40.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.59, a PEG ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.97. Garmin Ltd. has a one year low of $118.51 and a one year high of $215.55. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $179.40 and its 200-day moving average price is $171.87.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.99 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.53. The business had revenue of $1.59 billion for 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%. The firm's revenue was up 24.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.41 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 6.88 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Garmin news, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $210.10, for a total transaction of $123,328.70. Following the transaction, the director now owns 6,147 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,291,484.70. This trade represents a 8.72 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,055 shares of the company'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 of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,257,359.40. This represents a 19.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 13,479 shares of company stock worth $2,419,502. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by 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.