Independent Advisor Alliance Cuts Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Independent Advisor Alliance lowered its stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 7.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,818 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 138 shares during the period. Independent Advisor Alliance’s holdings in Garmin were worth $320,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GRMN. Tidal Investments LLC increased its stake in Garmin by 7.2% in the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 11,553 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,719,000 after purchasing an additional 780 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in shares of Garmin in the first quarter valued at $13,670,000. PGGM Investments raised its stake in shares of Garmin by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. PGGM Investments now owns 30,125 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $4,485,000 after buying an additional 713 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its position in shares of Garmin by 51.7% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 28,395 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $4,227,000 after buying an additional 9,681 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Advisors LLC grew its stake in Garmin by 77.0% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 4,755 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $708,000 after acquiring an additional 2,068 shares during the last quarter. 73.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Garmin

In other news, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of the 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 sale, the director now owns 6,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,291,484.70. This represents a 8.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 19.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Tigress Financial raised their price target 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 shares of Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $155.00 to $138.00 in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Garmin from $133.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Garmin currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $162.67.

Garmin Price Performance

Shares of GRMN stock opened at $212.09 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $186.08 and its 200-day simple moving average is $175.15. Garmin Ltd. has a 1-year low of $119.15 and a 1-year high of $216.44. The firm has a market cap of $40.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.91, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 0.97.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.99 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.53. Garmin had a net margin of 25.48% and a return on equity of 17.99%. The company had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.44 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.41 earnings per share. Garmin’s revenue was up 24.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.