Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) Rating Lowered to Underweight at Barclays

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) was downgraded by Barclays from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating in a report issued on Friday, MarketBeat reports. They currently have a $133.00 target price on the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, down from their previous target price of $181.00. Barclays‘s price objective would suggest a potential downside of 22.98% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on GRMN. Bank of America cut shares of Garmin from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $165.00 to $150.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 22nd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Garmin presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $151.33.

Garmin Trading Down 5.1 %

Garmin stock opened at $172.68 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $173.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $161.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $33.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.36, 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.40 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $1.51 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.42 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 24.36% and a return on equity of 17.09%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.45 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Garmin will post 6.05 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Garmin

In other news, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,055 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.16, for a total value of $1,781,343.80. Following 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,055 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $7,257,359.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.46, for a total transaction of $499,015.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 88,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,081,348.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 12,892 shares of company stock worth $2,296,174. 19.54% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GRMN. Private Advisor Group LLC increased its stake in Garmin by 25.1% in the fourth quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 4,160 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $535,000 after purchasing an additional 835 shares during the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in Garmin during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $65,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Garmin by 8.9% during the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 165,009 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $20,486,000 after purchasing an additional 13,441 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 8.9% in the 4th quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 129,846 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $16,691,000 after buying an additional 10,621 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC lifted its holdings in Garmin by 20.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 15,632 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $2,009,000 after acquiring an additional 2,680 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.41% 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.