HighTower Advisors LLC Acquires 5,890 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

HighTower Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN - Free Report) by 12.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 54,922 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock after acquiring an additional 5,890 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC's holdings in Garmin were worth $9,672,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 40.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,775,154 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $664,540,000 after purchasing an additional 1,093,219 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 136.7% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 711,849 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $115,177,000 after purchasing an additional 411,084 shares during the last quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Garmin during the third quarter valued at approximately $53,252,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Garmin during the second quarter valued at approximately $45,999,000. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 34.0% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,098,443 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $178,958,000 after purchasing an additional 278,990 shares during the last quarter. 81.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the director now owns 6,147 shares of the company's stock, valued at $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 available at this link. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Garmin Price Performance

NYSE GRMN traded up $0.70 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $219.28. The stock had a trading volume of 846,742 shares, compared to its average volume of 857,642. Garmin Ltd. has a 1 year low of $119.15 and a 1 year high of $220.50. The stock has a market cap of $42.11 billion, a PE ratio of 27.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $191.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $177.56.

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 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 business had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.44 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.41 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 24.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on GRMN. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Garmin from $133.00 to $158.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Garmin from an "equal weight" rating to an "underweight" rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $155.00 to $138.00 in a report on Monday, October 7th. Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Garmin from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Garmin from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $162.67.

Garmin Company 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.