Fred Alger Management LLC Acquires 855 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Fred Alger Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 4.2% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 21,423 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 855 shares during the period. Fred Alger Management LLC’s holdings in Garmin were worth $3,490,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Clearstead Trust LLC bought a new position in shares of Garmin during the 1st quarter worth approximately $30,000. Family Firm Inc. bought a new position in shares of Garmin during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $35,000. Benjamin Edwards Inc. raised its position in shares of Garmin by 73.3% during the second quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 234 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Garmin during the second quarter worth approximately $46,000. Finally, West Oak Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Garmin during the second quarter worth approximately $53,000. 73.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on GRMN. Barclays lowered Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $181.00 to $133.00 in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Garmin from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $152.17.

Garmin Price Performance

Shares of Garmin stock opened at $174.83 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $33.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.66, a PEG ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 1.00. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $174.64 and its two-hundred day moving average is $163.18. Garmin Ltd. has a 1 year low of $99.61 and a 1 year high of $184.42.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.42 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.45 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Garmin Ltd. will post 6.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 88,622 shares in the company, valued at $16,081,348.12. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 88,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,081,348.12. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,055 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.16, for a total transaction of $1,781,343.80. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 40,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,257,359.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 12,892 shares of company stock valued at $2,296,174. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by 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.