Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) Stock Position Raised by Empirical Asset Management LLC

Empirical Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 57.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,260 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,641 shares during the period. Empirical Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $1,497,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of GRMN. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,912,536 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,216,819,000 after purchasing an additional 134,303 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Garmin by 2.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,363,464 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $765,912,000 after buying an additional 112,815 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Garmin by 40.8% in 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 buying an additional 1,093,219 shares during the last quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 0.6% during the second quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 2,006,563 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $326,909,000 after acquiring an additional 11,666 shares during the period. Finally, Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN grew its position in shares of Garmin by 3.6% during the third quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 1,401,004 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $246,619,000 after acquiring an additional 48,645 shares during the last quarter. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $210.10, for a total value of $123,328.70. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,147 shares in the company, 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 through this link. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total value of $366,270.39. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 27,612 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,743,019.88. The trade was a 6.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on GRMN. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Garmin from $133.00 to $158.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $155.00 to $138.00 in a research report on Monday, October 7th. 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.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $171.00.

Garmin Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:GRMN opened at $215.50 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $41.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.35, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin Ltd. has a 12 month low of $119.15 and a 12 month high of $222.97. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $211.45 and its 200 day moving average price is $187.12.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.44 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 17.99% and a net margin of 25.48%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 24.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.41 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.01 EPS for the current year.

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.