Kera Capital Partners Inc. Invests $214,000 in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Kera Capital Partners Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 1,038 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $214,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Garmin by 5.9% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 47,349 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $7,714,000 after purchasing an additional 2,651 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Garmin by 8.4% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 163,517 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $26,640,000 after acquiring an additional 12,616 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL raised its position in shares of Garmin by 13.1% in the 2nd quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 5,592 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $911,000 after acquiring an additional 649 shares in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in shares of Garmin by 5.8% in the 2nd quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 1,522 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $248,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the period. Finally, Benjamin Edwards Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Garmin by 73.3% in 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 period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on GRMN. Barclays increased their price objective on Garmin from $133.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Tigress Financial increased their price target 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock 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 assigned a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $171.00.

Insider Activity at Garmin

In related news, 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 completion of the sale, the director now owns 6,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,291,484.70. The trade was a 8.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total value of $366,270.39. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 27,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,743,019.88. This trade represents a 6.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Garmin Stock Performance

Shares of Garmin stock opened at $215.50 on Monday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $211.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $187.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.38 billion, a PE ratio of 27.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin Ltd. has a 52-week low of $119.15 and a 52-week high of $222.97.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.53. The business 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 24.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.41 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.