Bank of America Lowers Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) to Underperform

Bank of America lowered shares of Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) from a neutral rating to an underperform rating in a report published on Wednesday, Marketbeat.com reports. Bank of America currently has $150.00 target price on the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, down from their previous target price of $165.00.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Garmin from $155.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Garmin from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. Tigress Financial raised their target price on shares of Garmin from $175.00 to $210.00 and gave the company a strong-buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 14th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Garmin from $140.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, Barrington Research boosted their price objective on shares of Garmin from $119.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Garmin presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $156.83.

Garmin Stock Performance

NYSE GRMN opened at $163.81 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $31.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.10, a P/E/G ratio of 3.51 and a beta of 0.99. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $153.33 and its 200-day moving average price is $135.78. Garmin has a fifty-two week low of $99.61 and a fifty-two week high of $171.64.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.42. The business had revenue of $1.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.25 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 17.26% and a net margin of 24.96%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.02 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Garmin will post 5.77 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 1,622 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $134.19, for a total value of $217,656.18. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 159,319 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,379,016.61. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Garmin news, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 1,622 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $134.19, for a total value of $217,656.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 159,319 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,379,016.61. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Jonathan Burrell sold 15,000 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $140.00, for a total transaction of $2,100,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 758,834 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $106,236,760. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 99,476 shares of company stock valued at $14,166,944 over the last ninety days. 19.54% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Garmin

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC boosted its holdings in Garmin by 3.3% in the 1st quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 2,309 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $344,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the last quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV raised its stake in Garmin by 17.6% in the 1st quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 542 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $81,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Garmin by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 2,168 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $279,000 after purchasing an additional 84 shares during the last quarter. Greenleaf Trust grew its holdings in shares of Garmin by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 3,518 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $452,000 after buying an additional 87 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Insight Folios Inc raised its position in shares of Garmin by 3.5% in the first quarter. Insight Folios Inc now owns 2,768 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $412,000 after buying an additional 93 shares during the last quarter. 73.41% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.