Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. Purchases New Position in Garmin Ltd. $GRMN

Key Points

• Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. has acquired a new position in Garmin Ltd. by purchasing 156,122 shares valued at approximately $33.9 million during the 1st quarter.
• Multiple institutional investors, including Brighton Jones LLC and Baird Financial Group Inc., have increased their stakes in Garmin, demonstrating significant interest in the company.
• Wall Street analysts have mixed ratings for Garmin, with target prices ranging from $167 to $250, indicating differing outlooks on the stock's future performance.

Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 156,122 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock, valued at approximately $33,899,000. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. owned about 0.08% of Garmin at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of GRMN. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Garmin by 25,047.9% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 885,456 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $192,259,000 after acquiring an additional 881,935 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Garmin by 79.3% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,585,170 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $340,574,000 after acquiring an additional 700,967 shares during the last quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. raised its stake in shares of Garmin by 673.4% during the first quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. now owns 441,318 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $95,823,000 after acquiring an additional 384,258 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Garmin during the first quarter valued at about $78,900,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Garmin by 2.0% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,425,166 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $4,000,656,000 after acquiring an additional 357,458 shares during the last quarter. 81.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GRMN has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Garmin from $215.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Barclays reaffirmed an "underweight" rating and set a $167.00 price objective (up from $152.00) on shares of Garmin in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Garmin from $172.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $222.00.

Garmin Stock Up 2.2%

Shares of NYSE GRMN traded up $5.19 on Thursday, reaching $241.15. 164,134 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 930,648. Garmin Ltd. has a 12 month low of $160.94 and a 12 month high of $246.50. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $229.24 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $212.37. The company has a market cap of $46.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.00.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In related news, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,202 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $232.48, for a total transaction of $2,371,760.96. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 36,092 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,390,668.16. This trade represents a 22.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,859 shares of the firm'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 transaction of $399,685.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 29,146 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,266,390. This trade represents a 6.00% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 19,960 shares of company stock valued at $4,376,918. Corporate insiders own 15.38% of the company's stock.

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.