Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) Given Consensus Rating of “Reduce” by Analysts

Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Reduce” from the six analysts that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have given a hold recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $171.00.

Several brokerages recently weighed in on GRMN. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $155.00 to $138.00 in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Tigress Financial upped their price target on Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Garmin from $133.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th.

Garmin Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE:GRMN opened at $211.25 on Thursday. Garmin has a 12-month low of $119.15 and a 12-month high of $222.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.81, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 0.98. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $210.46 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $184.84.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.53. The company had revenue of $1.59 billion for 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%. Garmin’s revenue was up 24.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.41 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Garmin will post 7.01 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In other news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total value of $366,270.39. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares in the company, valued at $5,743,019.88. This represents a 6.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $210.10, for a total value of $123,328.70. Following the transaction, the director now owns 6,147 shares in the company, valued at $1,291,484.70. This trade represents a 8.72 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 19.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GRMN. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new position in Garmin during the second quarter valued at approximately $107,000. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in Garmin by 7.9% in the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 26,427 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $4,306,000 after buying an additional 1,946 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC increased its stake in Garmin by 8.5% in the 2nd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 34,170 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $5,567,000 after buying an additional 2,674 shares in the last quarter. Privium Fund Management UK Ltd bought a new stake in Garmin during the second quarter valued at about $294,000. Finally, Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund lifted its position in shares of Garmin by 1.2% in the second quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 13,242 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $2,157,000 after acquiring an additional 155 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

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.