Blueshift Asset Management LLC Sells 12,622 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Blueshift Asset Management LLC lessened its stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 87.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,855 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 12,622 shares during the period. Blueshift Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $327,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. purchased a new position in Garmin in the second quarter worth $31,000. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in Garmin by 578.6% during the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 190 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 162 shares during the last quarter. Family Firm Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Garmin in the 2nd quarter worth about $35,000. Benjamin Edwards Inc. increased its position in shares of Garmin by 73.3% during the 2nd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 234 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of Garmin during the 2nd quarter valued at about $46,000. Institutional investors own 73.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on GRMN. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Garmin from $133.00 to $158.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Tigress Financial increased their target price on shares of Garmin from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered shares of 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 research report on Monday, October 7th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Garmin currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $162.67.

Garmin Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of Garmin stock opened at $212.09 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $40.73 billion, a PE ratio of 26.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 0.97. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $186.08 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $175.15. Garmin Ltd. has a 12-month low of $119.15 and a 12-month high of $216.44.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced 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 analysts’ consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 17.99% and a net margin of 25.48%. Garmin’s revenue was up 24.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.41 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of Garmin 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 sale, the director now owns 6,147 shares in the company, valued at $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 SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

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.