Silver Lake Advisory LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Silver Lake Advisory LLC cut its stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 4.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 28,447 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 1,332 shares during the quarter. Garmin accounts for 2.6% of Silver Lake Advisory LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest holding. Silver Lake Advisory LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $5,867,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of GRMN. Citigroup Inc. grew its position in Garmin by 123.2% during the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 283,412 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $49,889,000 after purchasing an additional 156,441 shares in the last quarter. Algert Global LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Garmin in the second quarter worth $508,000. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of Garmin during the third quarter valued at $695,000. Trajan Wealth LLC raised its position in Garmin by 9.1% during the third quarter. Trajan Wealth LLC now owns 82,362 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $14,498,000 after buying an additional 6,878 shares during the period. Finally, Passumpsic Savings Bank purchased a new stake in Garmin in the 3rd quarter worth about $3,137,000. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Garmin

In other Garmin news, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 $1,291,484.70. This trade represents a 8.72 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total transaction of $366,270.39. Following 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 19.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GRMN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Barclays lifted 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 shares of 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 increased their target price on shares of Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $171.00.

Garmin Stock Down 0.3 %

NYSE:GRMN opened at $215.65 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $211.65 and its 200-day moving average is $188.46. Garmin Ltd. has a 12 month low of $119.15 and a 12 month high of $222.97. The firm has a market cap of $41.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.98.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.53. Garmin had a net margin of 25.48% and a return on equity of 17.99%. The firm had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.44 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.41 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 24.1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Garmin 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.