KBC Group NV Raises Stock Holdings in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

KBC Group NV lifted its stake in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 560.8% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 203,713 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 172,883 shares during the quarter. KBC Group NV’s holdings in Garmin were worth $35,860,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Select Equity Group L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Garmin by 0.6% during the 2nd 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 boosted its position in Garmin by 0.8% during 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 acquiring an additional 13,968 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners grew its stake in Garmin by 4.3% in the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,416,130 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $210,799,000 after acquiring an additional 58,343 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP raised its holdings in Garmin by 34.0% in 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 acquiring an additional 278,990 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its stake in shares of Garmin by 20.2% during the 1st 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 period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GRMN has been the subject of several analyst reports. Tigress Financial upped their target price on Garmin from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Barclays lifted their price target on Garmin from $133.00 to $158.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com lowered shares of Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $155.00 to $138.00 in a report on Monday, October 7th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $162.67.

Insider Activity at Garmin

In other Garmin news, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 30th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $16,081,348.12. This trade represents a 3.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $210.10, for a total transaction of $123,328.70. Following the sale, the director now owns 6,147 shares in the company, valued at $1,291,484.70. This represents a 8.72 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 13,479 shares of company stock worth $2,419,502. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Garmin Price Performance

Garmin stock opened at $211.32 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $40.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 0.97. Garmin Ltd. has a 12 month low of $118.51 and a 12 month high of $215.55. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $178.79 and its 200-day moving average is $171.60.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.99 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.53. Garmin had a net margin of 25.48% and a return on equity of 17.99%. The firm had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.44 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.41 earnings per share. Garmin’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 6.88 EPS for the current 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.