Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) Stock Passes Above Two Hundred Day Moving Average – Time to Sell?

Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) shares passed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Tuesday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of $183.03 and traded as high as $208.18. Garmin shares last traded at $206.26, with a volume of 496,060 shares changing hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GRMN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Tigress Financial boosted their price target on Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Barclays upped their price target on Garmin from $133.00 to $158.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Garmin from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $155.00 to $138.00 in a report on Monday, October 7th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Garmin from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $171.00.

Garmin Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $39.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $206.02 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $183.03.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.99 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.46 by $0.53. The business had revenue of $1.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.44 billion. Garmin had a net margin of 25.48% and a return on equity of 17.99%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.41 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Garmin Ltd. will post 7.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Garmin news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total value of $366,270.39. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares in the company, valued at $5,743,019.88. The trade was a 6.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Sean Biddlecombe sold 587 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $210.10, for a total transaction of $123,328.70. Following the sale, the director now owns 6,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,291,484.70. This represents a 8.72 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 19.54% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 40.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,775,154 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $664,540,000 after acquiring an additional 1,093,219 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Garmin by 136.7% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 711,849 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $115,177,000 after purchasing an additional 411,084 shares during the period. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. bought a new stake in Garmin in the 3rd quarter valued at $53,252,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new position in Garmin in the 2nd quarter valued at $45,999,000. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Garmin by 34.0% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,098,443 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $178,958,000 after buying an additional 278,990 shares in the last quarter. 81.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.