Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. Acquires Shares of 302,516 Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm acquired 302,516 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $53,252,000. Garmin makes up about 0.6% of Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 26th biggest position.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in GRMN. Select Equity Group L.P. raised its stake in shares of Garmin by 0.6% in the second quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 2,006,563 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $326,909,000 after purchasing an additional 11,666 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Garmin by 0.8% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,735,623 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $282,761,000 after purchasing an additional 13,968 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners raised its stake in shares of Garmin by 4.3% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,416,130 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $210,799,000 after purchasing an additional 58,343 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP raised its stake in shares of Garmin by 34.0% in the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,098,443 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $178,958,000 after purchasing an additional 278,990 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors raised its stake in shares of Garmin by 20.2% in the first quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 839,537 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $124,982,000 after purchasing an additional 141,001 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.41% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In related news, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $210.10, for a total value of $123,328.70. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 6,147 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,291,484.70. The trade was a 8.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the director now owns 88,622 shares in the company, valued at $16,081,348.12. This represents a 3.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 3,424 shares of company stock valued at $638,159 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on GRMN. Morgan Stanley cut Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $155.00 to $138.00 in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on Garmin from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Barclays upped their price objective on Garmin from $133.00 to $158.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Three 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 MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $162.67.

Garmin Stock Performance

NYSE:GRMN opened at $210.22 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $182.02 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $173.65. Garmin Ltd. has a 52-week low of $119.15 and a 52-week high of $215.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.37 billion, a PE ratio of 26.68, a P/E/G ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 0.97.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.99 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.53. The firm had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.44 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 17.99% and a net margin of 25.48%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 24.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.41 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 6.68 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.