Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) Stock Rating Lowered by Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley cut shares of Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) from an equal weight rating to an underweight rating in a research report report published on Monday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. Morgan Stanley currently has $138.00 price objective on the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, down from their prior price objective of $155.00.

Several other research analysts have also commented on GRMN. Barclays lowered Garmin from an equal weight rating to an underweight rating and cut their price objective for the company from $181.00 to $133.00 in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Tigress Financial raised 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 lowered Garmin from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $158.50.

Garmin Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of GRMN opened at $165.64 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 0.99. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $173.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $164.80. Garmin has a twelve month low of $99.61 and a twelve month high of $184.42.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,055 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 40,965 shares in the company, valued at $7,257,359.40. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The stock was 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 directly owns 88,622 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,081,348.12. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,055 shares of Garmin stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the insider now owns 40,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,257,359.40. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 12,892 shares of company stock worth $2,296,174 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Garmin

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Rafferty Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Garmin by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 12,893 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,657,000 after buying an additional 379 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Garmin by 28.4% during the fourth 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 buying an additional 190,739 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado bought a new stake in shares of Garmin during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,149,000. Schroder Investment Management Group raised its holdings in shares of Garmin by 60.3% during the fourth quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 302,933 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $38,939,000 after buying an additional 113,951 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Neuberger Berman Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Garmin by 67.5% during the fourth quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 13,576 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,745,000 after buying an additional 5,470 shares during the last quarter. 73.41% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.