Barclays Downgrades Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) to Underweight

Barclays lowered shares of Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) from an equal weight rating to an underweight rating in a report issued on Friday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have $133.00 price objective on the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, down from their prior price objective of $181.00.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on GRMN. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Garmin from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Bank of America downgraded shares of Garmin from a neutral rating to an underperform rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $165.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $151.33.

Garmin Trading Down 0.0 %

NYSE GRMN opened at $172.62 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $174.02 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $161.74. Garmin has a 12-month low of $99.61 and a 12-month high of $184.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $33.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.35, a P/E/G ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.00.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.58 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.40 by $0.18. Garmin had a net margin of 24.36% and a return on equity of 17.09%. The business had revenue of $1.51 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.42 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.45 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Garmin will post 6.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Garmin

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

Institutional Trading of Garmin

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GRMN. Private Advisor Group LLC raised its position in Garmin by 25.1% in the fourth quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 4,160 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $535,000 after purchasing an additional 835 shares during the period. Principal Securities Inc. purchased a new position in Garmin during the fourth quarter worth about $65,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Garmin by 8.9% during the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 165,009 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $20,486,000 after acquiring an additional 13,441 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its stake in shares of Garmin by 8.9% in the 4th quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 129,846 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $16,691,000 after acquiring an additional 10,621 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 20.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 15,632 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $2,009,000 after acquiring an additional 2,680 shares during the last quarter. 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.