Nisa Investment Advisors LLC Grows Stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 30.1% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 41,791 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,674 shares during the quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $8,620,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. ProShare Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Garmin by 9.4% during the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 29,886 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $4,869,000 after purchasing an additional 2,579 shares in the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its position in Garmin by 71.2% during the second quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 5,982 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $975,000 after buying an additional 2,487 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can raised its holdings in shares of Garmin by 4.2% in the second quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 277,467 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $45,330,000 after acquiring an additional 11,142 shares during the last quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp lifted its position in shares of Garmin by 60.8% in the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 29,383 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $4,787,000 after acquiring an additional 11,108 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fred Alger Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Garmin by 4.2% during the second quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 21,423 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $3,490,000 after acquiring an additional 855 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Tigress Financial upped their target price 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. 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their price target for the company from $155.00 to $138.00 in a report on Monday, October 7th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $171.00.

Garmin Stock Down 0.3 %

NYSE:GRMN opened at $215.65 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $41.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 0.98. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $211.65 and its two-hundred day moving average is $188.46. Garmin Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $119.15 and a fifty-two week high of $222.97.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the director now owns 6,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,291,484.70. This trade represents a 8.72 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total transaction of $366,270.39. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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. Corporate insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

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.