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

Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN - Get Free Report) have received an average rating of "Reduce" from the six brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have assigned a hold recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $171.00.

Several brokerages recently commented on GRMN. Barclays raised their target price on Garmin from $133.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com cut shares of Garmin from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Tigress Financial increased their target price on 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 Garmin from an "equal weight" rating to an "underweight" rating and cut their target price for the stock from $155.00 to $138.00 in a research report on Monday, October 7th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Garmin

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp raised its position in Garmin by 2.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,912,536 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $1,216,819,000 after purchasing an additional 134,303 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Garmin by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,363,464 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $765,912,000 after purchasing an additional 112,815 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Garmin by 40.8% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,775,154 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $664,540,000 after acquiring an additional 1,093,219 shares in the last quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. grew its position in shares of Garmin by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 2,006,563 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $326,909,000 after buying an additional 11,666 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Garmin by 0.8% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,735,623 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $282,761,000 after purchasing an additional 13,968 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 81.60% of the company's stock.

Garmin Trading Down 0.8 %

NYSE GRMN traded down $1.71 on Thursday, reaching $204.55. The stock had a trading volume of 831,454 shares, compared to its average volume of 855,138. Garmin has a 1 year low of $119.15 and a 1 year high of $222.97. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $207.76 and a 200 day moving average price of $183.34. The company has a market capitalization of $39.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.96, a P/E/G ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 0.97.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.53. Garmin had a net margin of 25.48% and a return on equity of 17.99%. The business had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.44 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.41 EPS. Garmin's quarterly revenue was up 24.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Garmin will post 7.01 earnings per share 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.