Barclays Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) Stock

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN - Free Report) had its price target raised by Barclays from $158.00 to $188.00 in a research note published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. Barclays currently has an underweight rating on the scientific and technical instruments company's stock.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Tigress Financial lifted their target price on Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Morgan Stanley raised Garmin to a "sell" rating and lifted their target price for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Garmin currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $195.67.

Garmin Stock Down 1.9 %

GRMN traded down $4.34 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $224.67. The stock had a trading volume of 1,072,638 shares, compared to its average volume of 838,615. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $213.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $195.07. Garmin has a 1 year low of $131.20 and a 1 year high of $246.50. The stock has a market cap of $43.14 billion, a PE 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 posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.51. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 22.42%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 22.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.72 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Garmin will post 7.8 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In related 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 value of $366,270.39. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 27,612 shares in the company, valued at $5,743,019.88. The trade was a 6.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 19.54% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Garmin

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Garmin by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,067,708 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $3,726,645,000 after buying an additional 215,344 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in Garmin by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,912,536 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $1,216,819,000 after buying an additional 134,303 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Garmin by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,438,796 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $913,544,000 after buying an additional 75,332 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in 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 buying an additional 1,093,219 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Garmin in the 4th quarter worth approximately $396,184,000. Institutional investors own 81.60% of the company's stock.

Garmin Company Profile

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.