Inspire Investing LLC Reduces Holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Inspire Investing LLC trimmed its position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 46.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 8,838 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 7,520 shares during the quarter. Inspire Investing LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $1,823,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Finley Financial LLC purchased a new position in Garmin in the 4th quarter worth about $203,000. Advisory Alpha LLC bought a new stake in shares of Garmin in the 4th quarter worth about $303,000. Barlow Wealth Partners Inc. increased its position in shares of Garmin by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Barlow Wealth Partners Inc. now owns 71,602 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $15,284,000 after purchasing an additional 2,255 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 30.1% in the 4th quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 41,791 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $8,620,000 after acquiring an additional 9,674 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB raised its holdings in shares of Garmin by 8.5% in the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 804 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $166,000 after buying an additional 63 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Trading Down 0.8 %

GRMN stock opened at $216.18 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $211.65 and a two-hundred day moving average of $188.46. The company has a market cap of $41.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.43, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin Ltd. has a 12 month low of $119.15 and a 12 month high of $222.97.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total transaction of $366,270.39. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 27,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,743,019.88. This represents a 6.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $210.10, for a total transaction of $123,328.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,291,484.70. This represents a 8.72 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 19.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on GRMN shares. Barclays upped their price target 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. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on shares of Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock 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 assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Garmin currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $171.00.

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.