Blue Trust Inc. Acquires 852 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Blue Trust Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 64.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,171 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 852 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in Garmin were worth $448,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Citigroup Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Garmin by 123.2% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 283,412 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $49,889,000 after purchasing an additional 156,441 shares during the period. Algert Global LLC acquired a new position in Garmin in the second quarter valued at about $508,000. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC bought a new position in Garmin during the third quarter worth about $695,000. Trajan Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Garmin by 9.1% in the 3rd quarter. Trajan Wealth LLC now owns 82,362 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $14,498,000 after acquiring an additional 6,878 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Passumpsic Savings Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Garmin in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $3,137,000. 81.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In related 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 value of $123,328.70. Following the sale, the director now owns 6,147 shares of the company’s stock, 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total value of $366,270.39. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,743,019.88. This trade represents a 6.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays boosted their price objective 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 cut shares of Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $155.00 to $138.00 in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their target price on Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $171.00.

Garmin Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of GRMN stock opened at $215.58 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $41.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.36, a P/E/G ratio of 1.30 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 firm has a fifty day moving average of $212.50 and a 200-day moving average of $190.42.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.53. The firm 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 revenue for the quarter was up 24.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.41 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.01 EPS 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.