Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Analysts

Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) have received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the six ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $156.83.

A number of research firms have weighed in on GRMN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Garmin from $155.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 8th. Bank of America lowered shares of Garmin from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $165.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 22nd. Barrington Research increased their price objective on shares of Garmin from $119.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. Finally, Tigress Financial increased their target price on shares of Garmin from $175.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 14th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Garmin news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 5,267 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.56, for a total transaction of $708,727.52. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,360 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,085,241.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 5,267 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.56, for a total value of $708,727.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 30,360 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,085,241.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Jonathan Burrell sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.68, for a total transaction of $2,110,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 728,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $102,532,367.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 95,267 shares of company stock valued at $13,599,578. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Garmin

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Garmin by 213.5% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 41,557 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $5,342,000 after buying an additional 28,301 shares during the period. Peterson Wealth Services purchased a new position in Garmin in the 4th quarter worth about $2,365,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Garmin by 42.7% in the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 125,389 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $13,191,000 after purchasing an additional 37,532 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Garmin during the fourth quarter valued at $8,691,000. Finally, Natixis Advisors L.P. increased its stake in Garmin by 30.0% in the 4th quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 30,041 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $3,861,000 after buying an additional 6,939 shares during the period. 73.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Garmin Stock Performance

NYSE GRMN opened at $163.81 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $153.33 and a 200-day moving average price of $136.07. The company has a market capitalization of $31.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.10, a P/E/G ratio of 3.53 and a beta of 0.99. Garmin has a one year low of $99.61 and a one year high of $171.64.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.42. The business had revenue of $1.38 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.25 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 24.96% and a return on equity of 17.26%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 20.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.02 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Garmin will post 5.77 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.