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

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Garmin news, Director Philip Straub sold 2,750 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 sale, the director now owns 88,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,081,348.12. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Garmin news, 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 directly owns 88,622 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,081,348.12. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Cheng-Wei Wang sold 10,055 shares of Garmin 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 directly owns 40,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,257,359.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 12,892 shares of company stock valued at $2,296,174 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Garmin

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GRMN. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in Garmin by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 7,310,112 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $939,642,000 after purchasing an additional 63,278 shares during the last quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. now owns 2,006,563 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $326,909,000 after buying an additional 11,666 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Garmin by 0.8% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,735,623 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $282,761,000 after buying an additional 13,968 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners grew its holdings in Garmin by 4.3% during the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 1,416,130 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $210,799,000 after acquiring an additional 58,343 shares during the period. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company MN raised its position in Garmin by 4.4% during the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 1,291,589 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $166,021,000 after acquiring an additional 54,001 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.41% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Stock Performance

Garmin stock opened at $169.87 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $174.34 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $162.03. The company has a market cap of $32.63 billion, a PE ratio of 23.94, a PEG ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.00. Garmin has a fifty-two week low of $99.61 and a fifty-two week high of $184.42.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.58 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.40 by $0.18. Garmin had a return on equity of 17.09% and a net margin of 24.36%. The firm had revenue of $1.51 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.42 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.45 earnings per share. Garmin’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Garmin will post 6.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.