Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) Stock Position Increased by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 199,713 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,965 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Garmin were worth $35,155,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Citigroup Inc. grew its holdings in Garmin by 123.2% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 283,412 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $49,889,000 after buying an additional 156,441 shares in the last quarter. Algert Global LLC bought a new position in shares of Garmin in the second quarter worth $508,000. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of Garmin during the third quarter valued at $695,000. Trajan Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Garmin by 9.1% in the third quarter. Trajan Wealth LLC now owns 82,362 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $14,498,000 after purchasing an additional 6,878 shares during the period. Finally, Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Garmin by 24.2% in the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 17,529 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $3,086,000 after buying an additional 3,415 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Garmin news, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $210.10, for a total value of $123,328.70. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 6,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,291,484.70. The trade was a 8.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 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. 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

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on GRMN shares. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Garmin from $133.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com lowered Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Morgan Stanley downgraded Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $155.00 to $138.00 in a research note on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their target price on Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Garmin presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $171.00.

Garmin Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:GRMN opened at $209.30 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $40.19 billion, a PE ratio of 26.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 0.97. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $200.02 and a 200-day moving average of $180.72. Garmin Ltd. has a one year low of $119.15 and a one year high of $222.97.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.99 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.53. The business had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.44 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 17.99% and a net margin of 25.48%. Garmin’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.41 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast 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.