Insider Selling: Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) CFO Sells 1,761 Shares of Stock

Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares in the company, valued at $5,743,019.88. The trade was a 6.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Garmin Stock Performance

Garmin stock traded up $0.31 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $209.30. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 527,337 shares, compared to its average volume of 861,692. Garmin Ltd. has a 12 month low of $119.15 and a 12 month high of $222.97. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $200.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $180.72. The company has a market capitalization of $40.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 0.97.

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 for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.44 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.41 EPS. Garmin’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.01 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Garmin

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. grew its holdings in Garmin by 0.9% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. now owns 6,686 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,177,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the period. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co grew its holdings in Garmin by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 14,056 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $2,290,000 after buying an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in Garmin by 2.6% during the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 2,879 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $469,000 after buying an additional 74 shares during the period. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 0.7% during the third quarter. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. now owns 11,715 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $2,062,000 after buying an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in shares of Garmin by 5.8% in the second quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 1,522 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $248,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GRMN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Tigress Financial boosted their price target 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 price target on Garmin from $133.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com lowered Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report 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 note on Monday, October 7th. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Garmin presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price 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.