Royal Bank of Canada Boosts Stake in Garmin Ltd. $GRMN

Key Points

• Royal Bank of Canada increased its stake in Garmin Ltd. by 23.2% during the first quarter, owning 371,888 shares valued at approximately $80.7 million.
• Insider trading activity revealed sales by CFO Douglas G. Boessen and insider Cheng-Wei Wang, which decreased their respective holdings by 6% and 22%.
• Garmin reported earnings per share (EPS) of $2.17, exceeding estimates by $0.27, and had a quarterly revenue of $1.81 billion, marking a year-over-year increase of 20.4%.

Royal Bank of Canada lifted its stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN - Free Report) by 23.2% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 371,888 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock after buying an additional 70,070 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada owned about 0.19% of Garmin worth $80,748,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of GRMN. Groupe la Francaise acquired a new position in shares of Garmin in the first quarter valued at approximately $33,000. TFC Financial Management Inc. boosted its position in Garmin by 1,633.3% during the first quarter. TFC Financial Management Inc. now owns 156 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 147 shares during the period. Wayfinding Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Garmin in the first quarter worth about $34,000. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT purchased a new stake in Garmin in the first quarter worth approximately $38,000. Finally, Garde Capital Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Garmin during the 1st quarter valued at $40,000. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Garmin from $172.00 to $186.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Barclays reissued an "underweight" rating and issued a $167.00 price objective (up previously from $152.00) on shares of Garmin in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Garmin from $215.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Garmin has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $222.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,202 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $232.48, for a total transaction of $2,371,760.96. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 36,092 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,390,668.16. The trade was a 22.04% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,859 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.00, for a total value of $399,685.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 29,146 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,266,390. The trade was a 6.00% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 19,960 shares of company stock worth $4,376,918 in the last ninety days. 19.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Garmin Trading Up 0.8%

NYSE:GRMN traded up $2.02 on Monday, hitting $239.41. 461,847 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 934,937. The company has a market cap of $46.08 billion, a PE ratio of 29.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.00. Garmin Ltd. has a 1 year low of $160.94 and a 1 year high of $246.50. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $227.62 and a 200-day moving average price of $211.91.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.27. Garmin had a return on equity of 20.00% and a net margin of 23.21%.The business had revenue of $1.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.68 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.58 earnings per share. Garmin's quarterly revenue was up 20.4% on a year-over-year basis. Garmin has set its FY 2025 guidance at 8.000-8.000 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 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.