Citigroup Inc. Purchases 156,441 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Citigroup Inc. lifted its position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 123.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 283,412 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 156,441 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc.’s holdings in Garmin were worth $49,889,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in GRMN. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. bought a new stake in Garmin in the second quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Family Firm Inc. bought a new position in shares of Garmin during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $35,000. Benjamin Edwards Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 73.3% during the 2nd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 234 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of Garmin during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $46,000. Finally, West Oak Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Garmin during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $53,000. 73.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GRMN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com cut Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Morgan Stanley cut 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. Barclays raised their price objective on Garmin from $133.00 to $158.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Garmin from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Three equities 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $162.67.

Garmin Stock Performance

GRMN opened at $210.33 on Monday. Garmin Ltd. has a 52-week low of $119.15 and a 52-week high of $215.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.39 billion, a PE ratio of 26.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 0.97. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $182.77 and its 200-day moving average price is $174.00.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.99 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.53. Garmin had a return on equity of 17.99% and a net margin of 25.48%. The business had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.44 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.41 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 6.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Garmin news, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The stock was 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 $16,081,348.12. This represents a 3.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of the 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 sale, 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 3,424 shares of company stock valued at $638,159 over the last ninety days. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.