Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Reduce” by Brokerages

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

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

Insider Activity at Garmin

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

Institutional Trading of Garmin

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Garmin by 40.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,775,154 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $664,540,000 after buying an additional 1,093,219 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in Garmin by 136.7% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 711,849 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $115,177,000 after purchasing an additional 411,084 shares in the last quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. bought a new stake in Garmin in the third quarter valued at $53,252,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new position in Garmin in the second quarter valued at about $45,999,000. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP increased its holdings in Garmin by 34.0% during 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 purchasing an additional 278,990 shares in the last quarter. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Garmin Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GRMN opened at $207.51 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $208.66 and its two-hundred day moving average is $183.99. The company has a market capitalization of $39.85 billion, a PE ratio of 26.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin has a 12-month low of $119.15 and a 12-month high of $222.97.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.99 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.53. The business had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.44 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 25.48% and a return on equity of 17.99%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 24.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.41 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Garmin will post 7.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.