Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) Given Consensus Rating of “Reduce” by Brokerages

Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) has been given an average recommendation of “Reduce” by the five ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $210.80.

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on GRMN shares. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Garmin news, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,829 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $215.51, for a total transaction of $609,677.79. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,432 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,817,180.32. The trade was a 25.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total value of $366,270.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 27,612 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,743,019.88. The trade was a 6.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 26,103 shares of company stock worth $5,852,364 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC lifted its position in Garmin by 165.7% in the fourth quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 61,172 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $12,617,000 after acquiring an additional 38,151 shares during the last quarter. Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin in the 4th quarter valued at about $10,174,000. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH boosted its position in shares of Garmin by 45.7% in the 4th quarter. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH now owns 23,640 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $4,876,000 after purchasing an additional 7,414 shares during the period. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new position in Garmin during the 4th quarter worth approximately $39,748,000. Finally, Fidelity D & D Bancorp Inc. increased its position in Garmin by 13.2% during the fourth quarter. Fidelity D & D Bancorp Inc. now owns 1,857 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $383,000 after buying an additional 217 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of GRMN opened at $212.43 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $217.09 and its 200 day moving average price is $201.06. Garmin has a 12-month low of $138.86 and a 12-month high of $246.50. The firm has a market cap of $40.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.51. Garmin had a net margin of 22.42% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.72 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Garmin will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a $0.90 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.69%. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.04%.

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.