Great Diamond Partners LLC Takes $681,000 Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Great Diamond Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 3,301 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $681,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Garmin during the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,000. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its position in Garmin by 578.6% in the 3rd 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 period. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new stake in Garmin in the third quarter worth $39,000. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new stake in Garmin during the third quarter valued at about $59,000. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Garmin by 78.0% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 493 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $102,000 after buying an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Garmin Stock Performance

NYSE GRMN opened at $215.58 on Friday. Garmin Ltd. has a fifty-two week low of $119.15 and a fifty-two week high of $222.97. The stock has a market cap of $41.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 0.98. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $212.50 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $190.42.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 25.48% and a return on equity of 17.99%. The business had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.44 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.41 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Barclays boosted 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. Morgan Stanley lowered Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $155.00 to $138.00 in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their target price on shares of Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $171.00.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In related 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 value of $366,270.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,743,019.88. This represents a 6.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 6,147 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,291,484.70. The trade was a 8.72 % 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.

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.