Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the six brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have issued a hold recommendation, two have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $244.40.

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Barclays raised Garmin from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $208.00 to $217.00 in a research report on Friday, January 16th. Tigress Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Garmin in a research note on Friday, December 19th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Garmin in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Garmin from $193.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Longbow Research upgraded shares of Garmin from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 3rd.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO Patrick Desbois sold 3,678 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $210.40, for a total transaction of $773,851.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 61,798 shares in the company, valued at $13,002,299.20. The trade was a 5.62% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 10,431 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.23, for a total value of $2,151,185.13. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 135,180 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,878,171.40. This represents a 7.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 16,594 shares of company stock valued at $3,437,592. Insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Garmin

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Garmin by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,197,564 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $4,973,044,000 after purchasing an additional 499,235 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Garmin by 1.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,250,844 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,785,304,000 after buying an additional 126,677 shares during the period. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership lifted its stake in shares of Garmin by 6.4% in the second quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 5,892,150 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,229,810,000 after buying an additional 356,161 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Garmin by 1.3% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,606,511 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $958,405,000 after buying an additional 59,321 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in Garmin during the second quarter valued at about $410,304,000. Institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Price Performance

NYSE GRMN opened at $204.55 on Thursday. Garmin has a fifty-two week low of $169.26 and a fifty-two week high of $261.69. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $204.05 and its two-hundred day moving average is $222.19. The firm has a market cap of $39.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.00.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.99 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.99. Garmin had a return on equity of 19.42% and a net margin of 22.63%.The business had revenue of $1.77 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.78 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.99 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Garmin will post 7.8 EPS for the current year.

About Garmin

Garmin Ltd. is a technology company best known for designing and manufacturing navigation, communication and information devices that leverage global positioning system (GPS) technology. The company serves a diverse set of markets including consumer fitness and wearables, automotive navigation, aviation avionics, marine electronics and outdoor handheld devices. Garmin’s products combine hardware, mapping and software services to deliver location-aware solutions for personal, recreational and professional uses.

Garmin’s product lineup includes wearable fitness and multisport watches (Forerunner, Fenix, Venu), cycling computers and accessories (Edge, Varia), handheld and handheld-mounted GPS devices for outdoor activities, automotive and portable navigation units, marine chartplotters and fishfinders, and certified avionics for fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft.