Brokerages Set Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) Price Target at $210.80

Shares of Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) have been given an average rating of “Reduce” by the five research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has issued a hold recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $210.80.

Several research analysts recently commented on GRMN shares. Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Garmin from $265.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Garmin from $158.00 to $188.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $164.00 to $171.00 in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Clifton A. Pemble sold 7,202 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.14, for a total transaction of $1,635,862.28. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 149,525 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,963,108.50. This represents a 4.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Patrick Desbois sold 6,911 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $227.15, for a total transaction of $1,569,833.65. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 63,048 shares in the company, valued at $14,321,353.20. This trade represents a 9.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 24,342 shares of company stock valued at $5,486,094 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Garmin

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Garmin by 1.2% during the fourth 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 during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Garmin by 2.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,912,536 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,216,819,000 after purchasing an additional 134,303 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Garmin by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,438,796 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $913,544,000 after purchasing an additional 75,332 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Garmin by 40.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,775,154 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $664,540,000 after purchasing an additional 1,093,219 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin in the fourth quarter valued at about $396,184,000. 81.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Garmin Stock Up 0.5 %

NYSE GRMN opened at $209.78 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $40.36 billion, a PE ratio of 28.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $216.96 and a 200 day moving average price of $201.66. Garmin has a 52 week low of $138.86 and a 52 week high of $246.50.

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

Garmin Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be issued a $0.90 dividend. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th. Garmin’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 41.04%.

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.