Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Increases Stock Position in Garmin Ltd. $GRMN

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System boosted its stake in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) by 9.4% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 7,921 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 683 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Garmin were worth $1,653,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Garmin by 2.0% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,425,166 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $4,000,656,000 after purchasing an additional 357,458 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Garmin by 9.0% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,862,153 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $404,329,000 after purchasing an additional 153,267 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Garmin by 79.3% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,585,170 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $340,574,000 after purchasing an additional 700,967 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its stake in Garmin by 21.2% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 1,210,827 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $262,907,000 after purchasing an additional 211,731 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Garmin by 0.3% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 892,606 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $193,812,000 after purchasing an additional 2,768 shares during the period. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on GRMN. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Garmin in a research note on Wednesday. Barclays reiterated an “underweight” rating and set a $167.00 price target (up from $152.00) on shares of Garmin in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Garmin from $186.00 to $193.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Garmin from $215.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their price target on shares of Garmin from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Garmin has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $228.75.

Insider Activity at Garmin

In other news, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,202 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $232.48, for a total value of $2,371,760.96. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 36,092 shares in the company, valued at $8,390,668.16. This represents a 22.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 15.38% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Garmin Trading Down 3.2%

Shares of Garmin stock opened at $248.18 on Friday. Garmin Ltd. has a 12-month low of $160.95 and a 12-month high of $261.69. The stock has a market cap of $47.77 billion, a PE ratio of 30.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a 50-day moving average of $238.90 and a two-hundred day moving average of $216.49.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.27. Garmin had a net margin of 23.21% and a return on equity of 20.00%. The company had revenue of $1.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.68 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.58 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 20.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Garmin has set its FY 2025 guidance at 8.000-8.000 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 EPS 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.