CWA Asset Management Group LLC Purchases 597 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

CWA Asset Management Group LLC raised its position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 0.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 67,856 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 597 shares during the quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $13,996,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GRMN. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Garmin by 9.5% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,521 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $726,000 after purchasing an additional 305 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its position in shares of Garmin by 78.0% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 493 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $102,000 after buying an additional 216 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Garmin by 3.1% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 199,713 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $35,155,000 after purchasing an additional 5,965 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in Garmin by 35.8% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 135,477 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $22,755,000 after purchasing an additional 35,703 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $185,000. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on GRMN. 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 report on Monday, October 7th. 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 report on Monday, December 16th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Garmin from $133.00 to $158.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Three research 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 company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $171.00.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In other news, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $1,291,484.70. This represents a 8.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total transaction of $366,270.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,743,019.88. The trade was 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

GRMN traded up $2.45 during trading on Monday, reaching $209.60. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 90,059 shares, compared to its average volume of 511,796. The company has a market capitalization of $40.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin Ltd. has a 52-week low of $119.15 and a 52-week high of $222.97. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $208.66 and its 200-day moving average price is $183.99.

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