StockNews.com Upgrades Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) to “Buy”

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) was upgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Tuesday.

Several other research analysts have also weighed in on GRMN. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Garmin from $140.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Bank of America lowered shares of Garmin from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $165.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 22nd. Tigress Financial increased their target price on shares of Garmin from $175.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Garmin from $155.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $156.83.

Garmin Trading Down 0.3 %

Garmin stock opened at $160.98 on Tuesday. Garmin has a 12-month low of $99.61 and a 12-month high of $171.64. The stock has a market cap of $30.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.71, a PEG ratio of 3.51 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $162.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $143.86.

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

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Patrick Desbois sold 4,126 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.52, for a total value of $674,683.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 58,412 shares in the company, valued at $9,551,530.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, EVP Patrick Desbois sold 4,126 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.52, for a total value of $674,683.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 58,412 shares in the company, valued at $9,551,530.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 2,350 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.63, for a total transaction of $379,830.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 28,010 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,527,256.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Garmin

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GRMN. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. acquired a new stake in Garmin during the fourth quarter worth approximately $54,460,000. M&G Plc acquired a new position in shares of Garmin in the 1st quarter valued at $38,727,000. SW Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Garmin in the 4th quarter valued at $28,279,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Garmin by 28.4% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 862,527 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $110,869,000 after acquiring an additional 190,739 shares during the period. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its holdings in shares of Garmin by 153.8% in the 4th quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 291,918 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $37,737,000 after acquiring an additional 176,908 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.41% 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.