Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board Decreases Stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board reduced its position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN - Free Report) by 71.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,393 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock after selling 8,412 shares during the quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board's holdings in Garmin were worth $597,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GRMN. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. acquired a new position in Garmin during the second quarter worth $31,000. Family Firm Inc. purchased a new position in Garmin during the second quarter worth about $35,000. Benjamin Edwards Inc. boosted its holdings in Garmin by 73.3% in the 2nd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 234 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Finally, West Oak Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Garmin during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $53,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.41% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $210.10, for a total transaction of $123,328.70. Following the sale, the director now owns 6,147 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,291,484.70. The trade was a 8.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the director now directly owns 88,622 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $16,081,348.12. This trade represents a 3.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 3,424 shares of company stock valued at $638,159 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 19.54% of the company's stock.

Garmin Stock Performance

GRMN stock traded up $1.11 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $210.22. The company had a trading volume of 776,425 shares, compared to its average volume of 858,345. Garmin Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $119.15 and a fifty-two week high of $215.55. The company has a market capitalization of $40.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 0.97. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $182.02 and a 200 day simple moving average of $173.65.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.99 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.53. The company 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 company's quarterly revenue was up 24.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.41 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 6.88 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.