JPMorgan Chase & Co. Increases Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) Price Target to $260.00

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN - Get Free Report) had its price target lifted by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $219.00 to $260.00 in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a "neutral" rating on the scientific and technical instruments company's stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s target price would indicate a potential upside of 15.73% from the company's previous close.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Barclays lifted their price objective on Garmin from $133.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Morgan Stanley raised Garmin to a "sell" rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the stock a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Garmin currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $195.67.

Garmin Trading Down 1.9 %

Shares of GRMN traded down $4.34 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $224.67. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,072,638 shares, compared to its average volume of 838,615. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $213.24 and a 200 day simple moving average of $195.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.73, a P/E/G ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.98. Garmin has a 1-year low of $131.20 and a 1-year high of $246.50.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 22.42%. Garmin's revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.72 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Garmin will post 7.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction 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 of the company's stock, valued at $5,743,019.88. The trade was a 6.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Garmin

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Garmin by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,067,708 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $3,726,645,000 after purchasing an additional 215,344 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Garmin by 2.0% in 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 during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Garmin by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,438,796 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $913,544,000 after acquiring an additional 75,332 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its position 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 acquiring an additional 1,093,219 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Garmin during the fourth quarter valued at about $396,184,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company's stock.

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.