Verition Fund Management LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Verition Fund Management LLC trimmed its holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN - Free Report) by 31.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 10,031 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock after selling 4,519 shares during the quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC's holdings in Garmin were worth $1,766,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. bought a new stake in shares of Garmin in the 2nd quarter valued at about $31,000. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in Garmin by 578.6% during the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 190 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 162 shares during the period. Family Firm Inc. bought a new position in shares of Garmin in the 2nd quarter worth $35,000. Benjamin Edwards Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Garmin by 73.3% during the 2nd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 234 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in Garmin during the second quarter valued at about $46,000. 73.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Garmin Price Performance

Shares of GRMN stock traded up $1.99 during trading on Friday, hitting $218.58. 661,073 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 818,862. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $190.98 and its 200-day moving average price is $177.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 0.97. Garmin Ltd. has a 52-week low of $119.15 and a 52-week high of $219.54.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.44 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.41 EPS. The company's quarterly 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.

Insider Activity at Garmin

In other Garmin 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 value of $123,328.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 6,147 shares in the company, valued at $1,291,484.70. The trade was a 8.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 19.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on GRMN. 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 research note on Thursday, September 19th. Morgan Stanley lowered Garmin from an "equal weight" rating to an "underweight" rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $155.00 to $138.00 in a report on Monday, October 7th. Barclays boosted their target price on Garmin from $133.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded 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 given a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus 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.