Short Interest in Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) Declines By 6.5%

Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN - Get Free Report) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,750,000 shares, a decline of 6.5% from the January 15th total of 2,940,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 782,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.5 days. Approximately 1.8% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on GRMN shares. Morgan Stanley upgraded Garmin to a "sell" rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Thursday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $195.67.

Insider Activity at Garmin

In other news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total transaction of $366,270.39. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,743,019.88. The trade was a 6.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 19.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Garmin

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Garmin during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Garmin by 864.3% in the 4th quarter. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd now owns 135 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 121 shares in the last quarter. Pinnacle Bancorp Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin in the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. SOA Wealth Advisors LLC. purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin in the 4th quarter valued at about $37,000. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Garmin by 578.6% in the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 190 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 162 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company's stock.

Garmin Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:GRMN traded down $4.34 during trading on Friday, reaching $224.67. 1,000,607 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 836,491. Garmin has a 1-year low of $131.20 and a 1-year high of $246.50. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $213.24 and a two-hundred day moving average of $195.07. The firm has a market cap of $43.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.98.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.51. Garmin had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 22.42%. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.72 earnings per share. Garmin's revenue was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Garmin will post 7.8 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.90 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.60%. Garmin's payout ratio is 41.04%.

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.