Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) Reaches New 12-Month High – Still a Buy?

Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) hit a new 52-week high on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $207.64 and last traded at $206.18, with a volume of 19637 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $204.23.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently weighed in on GRMN shares. Barclays lifted their price target on Garmin from $133.00 to $158.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Morgan Stanley cut Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $155.00 to $138.00 in a research report on Monday, October 7th. Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on Garmin from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Garmin has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $162.67.

Garmin Price Performance

The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $175.10 and a 200-day moving average price of $168.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 0.97.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.99 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.53. The company had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.44 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 17.99% and a net margin of 25.48%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.41 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Garmin Ltd. will post 6.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In other Garmin news, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,055 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.16, for a total value of $1,781,343.80. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 40,965 shares in the company, valued at $7,257,359.40. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,055 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.16, for a total transaction of $1,781,343.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 40,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,257,359.40. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.46, for a total value of $499,015.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 88,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,081,348.12. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 12,892 shares of company stock worth $2,296,174 in the last three months. 19.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Garmin

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of GRMN. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Garmin by 136.7% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 711,849 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $115,177,000 after purchasing an additional 411,084 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new position in Garmin during the 2nd quarter valued at about $45,999,000. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its holdings in Garmin by 34.0% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,098,443 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $178,958,000 after acquiring an additional 278,990 shares during the period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its holdings in Garmin by 123.8% during the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 486,281 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $85,600,000 after acquiring an additional 268,996 shares during the period. Finally, M&G Plc purchased a new position in Garmin during the 1st quarter valued at about $38,727,000. 73.41% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.