Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) Sees Large Growth in Short Interest

Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) was the target of a large growth in short interest in August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,880,000 shares, a growth of 7.1% from the August 15th total of 2,690,000 shares. Approximately 1.9% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 737,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.9 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com lowered Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Bank of America lowered Garmin from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $165.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 22nd. Finally, Barclays lowered Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $181.00 to $133.00 in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $151.33.

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In other Garmin news, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.46, for a total transaction of $499,015.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 88,622 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,081,348.12. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,055 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 40,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,257,359.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the director now directly owns 88,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 in the last quarter. 19.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. purchased a new position in shares of Garmin in the 2nd quarter valued at $31,000. Clearstead Trust LLC purchased a new position in shares of Garmin in the 1st quarter valued at $30,000. Family Firm Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Garmin in the 2nd quarter valued at $35,000. Benjamin Edwards Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Garmin by 73.3% in the 2nd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 234 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 99 shares during the period. Finally, Frazier Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Garmin in the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. 73.41% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Garmin Stock Performance

GRMN traded down $1.71 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $169.87. 975,265 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 841,775. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $174.22 and a 200 day simple moving average of $161.98. The firm has a market cap of $32.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.20, a P/E/G ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.00. Garmin has a 1 year low of $99.61 and a 1 year high of $184.42.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last released 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. The company had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.42 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 17.09% and a net margin of 24.36%. Garmin’s quarterly revenue was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.45 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Garmin will post 6.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.