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

Garmin Ltd. (NYSE:GRMN) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest during the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,020,000 shares, a growth of 5.2% from the November 30th total of 2,870,000 shares. Currently, 2.0% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 895,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.4 days.

Insider Activity at Garmin

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Garmin

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GRMN. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. purchased a new position in Garmin during the 2nd quarter valued at about $31,000. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in Garmin by 578.6% in the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 190 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 162 shares in the last quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new position in Garmin in the 3rd quarter valued at $39,000. Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its position in shares of Garmin by 73.3% during the 2nd 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 position in shares of Garmin in the second quarter worth $46,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

Garmin Price Performance

NYSE:GRMN opened at $206.26 on Thursday. Garmin has a one year low of $119.15 and a one year high of $222.97. The company has a market cap of $39.61 billion, a PE ratio of 26.18, a PEG ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 0.97. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $206.91 and a 200-day moving average of $183.19.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $1.99 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.53. Garmin had a net margin of 25.48% and a return on equity of 17.99%. The company had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.44 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.41 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Garmin will post 7.01 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

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.