Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC Acquires New Holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 4,471 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock, valued at approximately $922,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC purchased a new position in Garmin in the fourth quarter worth approximately $440,000. Diversify Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Garmin in the 4th quarter valued at $230,000. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB increased its holdings in shares of Garmin by 8.5% in the 4th quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 804 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $166,000 after acquiring an additional 63 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in Garmin by 30.1% in the 4th quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 41,791 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $8,620,000 after buying an additional 9,674 shares during the period. Finally, Advisory Alpha LLC acquired a new position in Garmin in the 4th quarter valued at $303,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.60% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In related news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 2,763 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.55, for a total transaction of $625,957.65. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,936 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,008,550.80. This trade represents a 8.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total transaction of $609,677.79. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 8,432 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,817,180.32. The trade was a 25.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 10,229 shares of company stock valued at $2,280,398 over the last 90 days. 19.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Garmin Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GRMN traded down $2.83 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $202.68. 190,411 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 876,214. The company's 50 day moving average is $197.25 and its 200 day moving average is $208.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $39.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.99. Garmin Ltd. has a one year low of $158.38 and a one year high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.61 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.62 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.50 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The company's revenue was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.42 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on GRMN. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Garmin from $188.00 to $152.00 and set an "underweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Tigress Financial increased their target price on shares of Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Garmin from $159.00 to $172.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of Garmin from $220.00 to $215.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Garmin has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $206.00.

Garmin Company 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.