Citigroup Inc. Acquires 156,441 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Citigroup Inc. lifted its position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 123.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 283,412 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 156,441 shares during the quarter. Citigroup Inc. owned about 0.15% of Garmin worth $49,889,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Garmin by 136.7% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 711,849 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $115,177,000 after purchasing an additional 411,084 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new position in Garmin during the 2nd quarter valued at about $45,999,000. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its position in Garmin by 34.0% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,098,443 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $178,958,000 after purchasing an additional 278,990 shares during the period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its position in Garmin by 123.8% during the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 486,281 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $85,600,000 after purchasing an additional 268,996 shares during the period. Finally, Wedge Capital Management L L P NC acquired a new position in Garmin during the 3rd quarter valued at about $45,501,000. 73.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Garmin news, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.46, for a total transaction of $499,015.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 88,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,081,348.12. The trade was a 3.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was 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 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. Insiders sold a total of 3,424 shares of company stock valued at $638,159 over the last ninety days. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Garmin Trading Up 0.6 %

NYSE:GRMN opened at $210.33 on Monday. Garmin Ltd. has a 1-year low of $119.15 and a 1-year high of $215.55. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $182.77 and a 200 day simple moving average of $174.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.39 billion, a PE ratio of 26.69, a P/E/G ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 0.97.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.44 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.41 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 24.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 6.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on GRMN shares. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. 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. Morgan Stanley downgraded 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. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their price target on shares of Garmin from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $162.67.

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.