Empirical Asset Management LLC Purchases 2,641 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Empirical Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 57.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 7,260 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,641 shares during the period. Empirical Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $1,497,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GRMN. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Garmin by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,912,536 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,216,819,000 after buying an additional 134,303 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 2.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,363,464 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $765,912,000 after acquiring an additional 112,815 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 40.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,775,154 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $664,540,000 after acquiring an additional 1,093,219 shares during the period. Select Equity Group L.P. raised its stake in shares of Garmin by 0.6% in the second quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 2,006,563 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $326,909,000 after acquiring an additional 11,666 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN boosted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 1,401,004 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $246,619,000 after acquiring an additional 48,645 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Stock Up 0.4 %

NYSE:GRMN opened at $215.50 on Friday. Garmin Ltd. has a 12-month low of $119.15 and a 12-month high of $222.97. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $211.45 and its 200-day simple moving average is $187.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 0.98.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.53. The firm had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.44 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 17.99% and a net margin of 25.48%. The company’s revenue was up 24.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.41 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $210.10, for a total transaction of $123,328.70. Following the transaction, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total value 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. The trade was a 6.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 19.54% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Tigress Financial boosted 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. Barclays boosted their target price on 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 cut Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased 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 issued a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Garmin has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus 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.