Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. Buys 4,895 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. grew its stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 16.3% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 34,869 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,895 shares during the quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc.’s holdings in Garmin were worth $5,681,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of GRMN. Wealth Advisors of Tampa Bay LLC grew its holdings in Garmin by 1.2% during the second quarter. Wealth Advisors of Tampa Bay LLC now owns 25,790 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $4,202,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in shares of Garmin by 5.8% during 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 buying an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. MQS Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Garmin by 26.1% during the 2nd quarter. MQS Management LLC now owns 2,795 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $455,000 after acquiring an additional 579 shares during the period. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co increased its holdings in Garmin by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 14,056 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $2,290,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blair William & Co. IL raised its stake in 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 valued at $911,000 after acquiring an additional 649 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.41% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,055 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.16, for a total transaction of $1,781,343.80. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 40,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,257,359.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,055 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.16, for a total value of $1,781,343.80. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 40,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,257,359.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.46, for a total transaction of $499,015.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 88,622 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,081,348.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 12,892 shares of company stock worth $2,296,174 in the last ninety days. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Garmin Trading Down 0.4 %

Garmin stock opened at $171.00 on Friday. Garmin Ltd. has a 1-year low of $99.61 and a 1-year high of $184.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $32.85 billion, a PE ratio of 24.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.00. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $174.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $162.32.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.40 by $0.18. Garmin had a net margin of 24.36% and a return on equity of 17.09%. The firm had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.42 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.45 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 6.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on GRMN shares. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on shares of Garmin from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Barclays lowered shares of Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $181.00 to $133.00 in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Garmin has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $152.17.

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.