Barclays Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) Stock

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) had its price target increased by research analysts at Barclays from $158.00 to $188.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “underweight” rating on the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock. Barclays‘s price objective would indicate a potential downside of 16.32% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Garmin to a “sell” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $164.00 to $171.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Garmin from $219.00 to $260.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Tigress Financial upped their target price on shares of Garmin from $215.00 to $265.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Three equities research 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $195.67.

Garmin Stock Performance

Shares of GRMN stock opened at $224.67 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $213.24 and its two-hundred day moving average is $195.07. Garmin has a 1 year low of $131.20 and a 1 year high of $246.50. The firm has a market cap of $43.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.73, a PEG ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.98.

Garmin (NYSE:GRMN) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.51. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. Garmin had a return on equity of 19.31% and a net margin of 22.42%. The business’s revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.72 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Garmin will post 7.8 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Garmin

In other news, CFO Douglas G. Boessen sold 1,761 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.99, for a total transaction of $366,270.39. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,612 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,743,019.88. This represents a 6.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 19.54% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GRMN. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Garmin by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,067,708 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $3,726,645,000 after purchasing an additional 215,344 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Garmin by 2.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,912,536 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,216,819,000 after buying an additional 134,303 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Garmin by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,438,796 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $913,544,000 after buying an additional 75,332 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Garmin by 40.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,775,154 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $664,540,000 after buying an additional 1,093,219 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Garmin during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $396,184,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.60% of the company’s stock.

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.