Empowered Funds LLC Reduces Position in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Empowered Funds LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 42,246 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 192 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $7,437,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Select Equity Group L.P. boosted its holdings in Garmin by 0.6% in the second quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 2,006,563 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $326,909,000 after purchasing an additional 11,666 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,735,623 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $282,761,000 after buying an additional 13,968 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners grew its position in shares of Garmin by 4.3% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,416,130 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $210,799,000 after buying an additional 58,343 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP raised its stake in Garmin by 34.0% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,098,443 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $178,958,000 after acquiring an additional 278,990 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its position in Garmin by 20.2% in the first quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 839,537 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $124,982,000 after acquiring an additional 141,001 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.41% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Stock Performance

Shares of GRMN opened at $208.43 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.45, a P/E/G ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.97. Garmin Ltd. has a 1 year low of $118.51 and a 1 year high of $215.55. The company’s fifty day moving average is $179.96 and its two-hundred day moving average is $172.31.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.53. Garmin had a net margin of 25.48% and a return on equity of 17.99%. The firm had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.44 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.41 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 6.88 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have issued reports on GRMN shares. Morgan Stanley lowered 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 report on Monday, October 7th. Barclays raised their price target on Garmin from $133.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Tigress Financial boosted 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. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Three equities 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $162.67.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,055 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the insider now owns 40,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,257,359.40. The trade was a 19.71 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 in the company, valued at approximately $1,291,484.70. This represents a 8.72 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 13,479 shares of company stock valued at $2,419,502 in the last three months. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.