U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 36,272 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,482,000.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in GRMN. FMR LLC increased its position in Garmin by 40.8% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,775,154 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $664,540,000 after purchasing an additional 1,093,219 shares during the last quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Garmin in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $53,252,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its holdings in Garmin by 1,580.3% in the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 287,283 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $50,570,000 after buying an additional 270,186 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its position in Garmin by 123.8% during the third 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 acquiring an additional 268,996 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wedge Capital Management L L P NC acquired a new stake in Garmin in the third quarter valued at approximately $45,501,000. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Garmin Price Performance

Shares of GRMN opened at $215.58 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $41.40 billion, a PE ratio of 27.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin Ltd. has a one year low of $119.15 and a one year high of $222.97. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $212.61 and its 200 day moving average price is $190.86.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.99 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.53. Garmin had a return on equity of 17.99% and a net margin of 25.48%. The business had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.44 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.41 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on GRMN. 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. Barclays increased their target price on shares of 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 lowered Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their target price for the company from $155.00 to $138.00 in a report on Monday, October 7th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $171.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In related news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total transaction of $366,270.39. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,743,019.88. This trade 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 through this hyperlink. Also, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,291,484.70. This trade represents a 8.72 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 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.