Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) Hits New 52-Week High - Here's What Happened

Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN - Get Free Report)'s stock price reached a new 52-week high on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $198.60 and last traded at $198.34, with a volume of 352201 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $166.27.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GRMN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Garmin from an "equal weight" rating to an "underweight" rating and reduced their price target for the company from $155.00 to $138.00 in a report on Monday, October 7th. Tigress Financial upped their target price on Garmin from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. StockNews.com downgraded Garmin from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, Barclays downgraded Garmin from an "equal weight" rating to an "underweight" rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $181.00 to $133.00 in a research report on Friday, September 13th. 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $158.50.

Garmin Trading Up 23.2 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $39.36 billion, a PE ratio of 29.13, a PEG ratio of 2.81 and a beta of 0.99. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $172.91 and its 200 day simple moving average is $166.75.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.58 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.40 by $0.18. Garmin had a return on equity of 17.09% and a net margin of 24.36%. The firm had revenue of $1.51 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.42 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.45 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 6.08 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In other news, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.46, for a total transaction of $499,015.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 88,622 shares in the company, valued at $16,081,348.12. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.46, for a total value of $499,015.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 88,622 shares in the company, valued at $16,081,348.12. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,055 shares of the firm'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 transaction of $1,781,343.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 40,965 shares in the company, valued at $7,257,359.40. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 12,892 shares of company stock worth $2,296,174 in the last 90 days. 19.54% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Garmin

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GRMN. Pittenger & Anderson Inc. grew its holdings in Garmin by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Pittenger & Anderson Inc. now owns 22,926 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $4,036,000 after purchasing an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank boosted its position in Garmin by 12.7% in the 3rd quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 35,188 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $6,194,000 after buying an additional 3,975 shares during the last quarter. FSM Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Garmin by 20.0% in the 3rd quarter. FSM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,708 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $301,000 after buying an additional 285 shares during the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Garmin by 1.9% during the third quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 61,514 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $10,828,000 after acquiring an additional 1,136 shares in the last quarter. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Garmin by 5.9% during the third quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 66,293 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $11,670,000 after acquiring an additional 3,713 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.41% of the company's stock.

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.