Bank of Montreal Can Increases Stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Bank of Montreal Can grew its stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 4.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 277,467 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 11,142 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can’s holdings in Garmin were worth $45,330,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Lombard Odier Asset Management USA Corp purchased a new stake in Garmin during the second quarter worth $610,000. Evergreen Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Garmin by 2.1% in the second quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 6,948 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,132,000 after acquiring an additional 146 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its stake in shares of Garmin by 71.2% during the 2nd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 5,982 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $975,000 after acquiring an additional 2,487 shares in the last quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin during the 2nd quarter worth about $1,018,000. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Garmin by 9.4% during the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 29,886 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $4,869,000 after acquiring an additional 2,579 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.41% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Price Performance

NYSE GRMN opened at $173.15 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $174.64 and its 200-day simple moving average is $163.18. The company has a market cap of $33.28 billion, a PE ratio of 24.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 1.00. Garmin Ltd. has a 1-year low of $99.61 and a 1-year high of $184.42.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.40 by $0.18. Garmin had a return on equity of 17.09% and a net margin of 24.36%. The company had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.42 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.45 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 6.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on GRMN. Tigress Financial increased their price target on Garmin from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Barclays lowered Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $181.00 to $133.00 in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $152.17.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Garmin news, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.46, for a total value of $499,015.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 88,622 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,081,348.12. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,055 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the insider now owns 40,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,257,359.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.46, for a total transaction of $499,015.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 88,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,081,348.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 12,892 shares of company stock worth $2,296,174. 19.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.