Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) Trading Down 3.5% – Here’s Why

Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) traded down 3.5% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $206.11 and last traded at $206.44. 86,923 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 89% from the average session volume of 781,458 shares. The stock had previously closed at $213.90.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Tigress Financial lifted their price target on Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley raised Garmin to a “sell” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Barclays lifted their target price on Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $210.80.

Garmin Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $39.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.25, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $217.05 and a 200 day moving average price of $201.23.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.51. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 22.42%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.72 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current year.

Garmin Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a $0.90 dividend. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.74%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.04%.

Insider Activity at Garmin

In other Garmin news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total transaction of $366,270.39. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 27,612 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,743,019.88. The trade was a 6.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.14, for a total value of $1,635,862.28. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 149,525 shares in the company, valued at $33,963,108.50. The trade was a 4.60 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 26,103 shares of company stock worth $5,852,364 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Garmin

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GRMN. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Garmin by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,067,708 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $3,726,645,000 after acquiring an additional 215,344 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Garmin by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,912,536 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,216,819,000 after acquiring an additional 134,303 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Garmin by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,438,796 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $913,544,000 after acquiring an additional 75,332 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Garmin by 40.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,775,154 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $664,540,000 after acquiring an additional 1,093,219 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin during the 4th quarter worth approximately $396,184,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

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.