D.A. Davidson & CO. Purchases 916 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

D.A. Davidson & CO. lifted its position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 3.2% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 29,275 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 916 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in Garmin were worth $5,153,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of GRMN. FMR LLC raised its position in Garmin by 40.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,775,154 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $664,540,000 after purchasing an additional 1,093,219 shares during the last quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. lifted its stake in Garmin by 0.6% in the second quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 2,006,563 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $326,909,000 after acquiring an additional 11,666 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Garmin by 0.8% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,735,623 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $282,761,000 after acquiring an additional 13,968 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners increased its position in Garmin by 4.3% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,416,130 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $210,799,000 after purchasing an additional 58,343 shares during the period. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP raised its holdings in Garmin by 34.0% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,098,443 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $178,958,000 after purchasing an additional 278,990 shares in the last quarter. 73.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $155.00 to $138.00 in a research report on Monday, October 7th. StockNews.com downgraded Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Barclays raised their target price 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 upped their price target on Garmin from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $162.67.

Insider Activity

In other Garmin news, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of the 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 transaction, the director now owns 6,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 can be accessed through the SEC website. 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 transaction of $499,015.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 88,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,081,348.12. The trade was a 3.01 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE GRMN opened at $212.09 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $40.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $185.28 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $174.89. Garmin Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $119.15 and a fifty-two week high of $216.44.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.99 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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%. Garmin’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.41 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.