Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund Sells 403 Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund reduced its stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 8.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,553 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 403 shares during the period. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund’s holdings in Garmin were worth $801,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GRMN. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Garmin by 136.7% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 711,849 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $115,177,000 after purchasing an additional 411,084 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Garmin during the 2nd quarter valued at $45,999,000. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its stake in shares of 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 valued at $178,958,000 after buying an additional 278,990 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its holdings in Garmin by 123.8% in the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 486,281 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $85,600,000 after buying an additional 268,996 shares during the period. Finally, Wedge Capital Management L L P NC purchased a new stake in Garmin in the 3rd quarter worth $45,501,000. 73.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. StockNews.com downgraded Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Barclays upped 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 lifted their price objective on shares of Garmin from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $155.00 to $138.00 in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $162.67.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.46, for a total transaction of $499,015.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 88,622 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,081,348.12. This represents a 3.01 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $210.10, for a total transaction of $123,328.70. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 6,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,291,484.70. The trade was a 8.72 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 13,479 shares of company stock valued at $2,419,502 over the last ninety days. 19.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Garmin Stock Performance

NYSE GRMN opened at $208.43 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $179.96 and a 200-day moving average price of $172.51. Garmin Ltd. has a one year low of $118.51 and a one year high of $215.55. The company has a market capitalization of $40.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.45, a P/E/G ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.97.

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