Virtu Financial LLC Makes New Investment in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN)

Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 2,848 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $501,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Citigroup Inc. boosted its position in Garmin by 123.2% during the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 283,412 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $49,889,000 after purchasing an additional 156,441 shares during the period. Algert Global LLC bought a new position in Garmin during the second quarter worth about $508,000. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC bought a new position in Garmin during the third quarter worth about $695,000. Trajan Wealth LLC boosted its position in Garmin by 9.1% during the third quarter. Trajan Wealth LLC now owns 82,362 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $14,498,000 after purchasing an additional 6,878 shares during the period. Finally, Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Garmin by 24.2% during the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 17,529 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $3,086,000 after purchasing an additional 3,415 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Price Performance

Shares of Garmin stock opened at $215.40 on Monday. Garmin Ltd. has a 1 year low of $119.15 and a 1 year high of $222.97. The firm has a market cap of $41.36 billion, a PE ratio of 27.34, a PEG ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $195.59 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $178.98.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.53. The business had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.44 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 25.48% and a return on equity of 17.99%. Garmin’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.41 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.01 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Garmin news, 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 6,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,291,484.70. This trade represents a 8.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on GRMN. Tigress Financial increased their target price on shares of Garmin from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $155.00 to $138.00 in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Garmin from $133.00 to $158.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $162.67.

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.