Kera Capital Partners Inc. Buys New Holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Kera Capital Partners Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 1,038 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $214,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Garmin during the 4th quarter valued at about $440,000. HB Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Garmin by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,821 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $788,000 after buying an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Garmin during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,338,000. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC increased its stake in Garmin by 12.4% in the 4th quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 7,428 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,532,000 after acquiring an additional 819 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Everpar Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin during the 4th quarter worth approximately $221,000. 81.60% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Garmin Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of GRMN opened at $215.50 on Monday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $211.45 and its 200-day simple moving average is $187.48. The company has a market cap of $41.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin Ltd. has a twelve month low of $119.15 and a twelve month high of $222.97.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GRMN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Tigress Financial raised their target price on shares of Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Garmin from $133.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $155.00 to $138.00 in a report on Monday, October 7th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Garmin has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $171.00.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In related news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total value of $366,270.39. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 27,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,743,019.88. This trade represents a 6.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $210.10, for a total transaction of $123,328.70. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 6,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,291,484.70. This trade represents a 8.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

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.