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

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Wednesday.

GRMN has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Garmin from $120.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Barrington Research lifted their target price on shares of Garmin from $119.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research report on Thursday, February 22nd. Tigress Financial restated a strong-buy rating and set a $175.00 target price (up previously from $165.00) on shares of Garmin in a research report on Tuesday, February 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Garmin from $139.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Garmin has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $142.33.

Garmin Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of NYSE:GRMN opened at $139.52 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $26.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.79, a PEG ratio of 4.62 and a beta of 0.98. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $140.52 and its 200-day simple moving average is $126.43. Garmin has a fifty-two week low of $94.89 and a fifty-two week high of $149.54.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.40 by $0.32. The business had revenue of $1.48 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.41 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 24.67% and a return on equity of 16.60%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.35 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Garmin will post 5.45 EPS for the current year.

Garmin Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a dividend of $0.75 per share. This represents a $3.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.15%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.52%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Garmin news, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,587 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.18, for a total transaction of $349,710.66. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 7,174 shares in the company, valued at $969,781.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 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 shares were sold at an average price of $134.19, for a total transaction of $217,656.18. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 159,319 shares in the company, valued at $21,379,016.61. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, VP Susan Lyman sold 2,587 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.18, for a total transaction of $349,710.66. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 7,174 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $969,781.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 99,476 shares of company stock valued at $14,166,944. Insiders own 19.89% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV boosted its stake in shares of Garmin by 17.6% in the first 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 period. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Garmin by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 2,168 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $279,000 after purchasing an additional 84 shares during the period. Greenleaf Trust boosted its stake in shares of Garmin by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 3,518 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $452,000 after purchasing an additional 87 shares during the period. Insight Folios Inc boosted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 93 shares during the period. Finally, First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Garmin by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 7,189 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $924,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the period. 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.