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

Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest during the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,500,000 shares, a growth of 21.5% from the August 31st total of 2,880,000 shares. Approximately 2.3% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 781,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.5 days.

Insider Activity

In other Garmin news, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.46, for a total value of $499,015.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 88,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,081,348.12. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.46, for a total transaction of $499,015.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 88,622 shares in the company, valued at $16,081,348.12. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,055 shares of the business’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 transaction 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. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 12,892 shares of company stock worth $2,296,174. Insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Garmin

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in GRMN. Clearstead Trust LLC bought a new position in Garmin during the first quarter valued at approximately $30,000. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. purchased a new stake in shares of Garmin during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Family Firm Inc. bought a new position in shares of Garmin during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Garmin by 73.3% in the second quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 234 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 99 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in Garmin in the second quarter worth $46,000. 73.41% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Garmin Stock Performance

Shares of GRMN stock traded up $2.04 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $176.03. 1,139,564 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 843,537. Garmin has a 12 month low of $99.61 and a 12 month high of $184.42. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $174.80 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $163.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $33.81 billion, a PE ratio of 24.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 1.00.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.40 by $0.18. The firm had revenue of $1.51 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.42 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 24.36% and a return on equity of 17.09%. Garmin’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.45 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Garmin will post 6.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on GRMN. Tigress Financial lifted their price objective on Garmin from $210.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, Barclays cut shares of Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $181.00 to $133.00 in a report on Friday, September 13th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Garmin currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $152.17.

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.